Compare and Contrast of the Classical School of Management and the Human Relations School of Management

If group is deemed a reference group, consider how this group affects or hasaffected your lifepersonally and/or professionally? If you select any organizations for youranalysis, consider Weber’s five characteristics of an ideal bureaucracy and suggest which (if any) of the characteristics are directly applicable to your organization. From personal experience, examine the positive and negative ramifications of operating within a bureaucratic structure.

An important similarity that can be found between these two theories is their approach to control their "teams". A Scientific Management based approach would see a manager avoid contact with their workers and treat them as "economically motivated automatons". (Rose, 2005) On the other hand a Human Relations approach to the situation would see a manager try to understand any problems of the worker and encourage them to work through motivation. (Bartol, Martin, Tein and Matthews, 2001) Why these may seem like contrasts between the theories, what should be noted is the desire of both approaches to control their teams; one by avoiding human relationships and one through human relationships. (Rose, 2005)

The three types of authority that sociologist, Max Weber identified were; traditional, charismatic, and rational. Charismatic authority is when someone has personal power. When people trust in this person and put him up on a pedestal he gets a certain power. Traditional authority is when someone has influential qualities. Order is essential to this person. Rational authority is where laws are upheld and placed. It's a sort of order that people would like to follow. The most legitimate is the rational authority because it's based on rules and laws and it is also the most fair because everyone has to follow the same laws and everyone understands what they are and

While he highlights a lot of positives, he also saw a lot of issues within bureaucracy. Webers’ bureaucracy is a bottom line model that values calculable decision making over all else. Within this model are the people, or parts, that can be replaced if they cause a decrease in productivity. The issue becomes that the rationalized view of bureaucratic systems is unable to see individuals and respond to individual needs. There is a format and if someone does not fit in, or if they begin to fall behind, there is no understanding or support. His argument is that the bureaucratization of our world has made it depersonalized.

The classical theory is the earliest form of management that perceived that a set of universal principles would apply to all the organizations in all situations to achieve efficiency and organization's goals. Scientific management and bureaucratic theory were one of the several components of the classical school of organization. Important pioneers among them are Frederick Taylor and Max Weber. The classical theories have been contested of little relevance to work and organization today simply

As I mentioned, Weber did his work with regard to the characteristics of the bureaucracy, so the ideal type of bureaucracy. He said that in a perfect world in its perfect state a bureaucracy would have five very important characteristics and it would perform each one of these characteristics optimally. In first characteristics of bureaucracy, according to Weber, you would have clear divisions of labor. Workers would assigned to do specific, specialized tasks and while those all would work together for the bureaucracy to function properly each person would have their own job to do. The second characteristic is rules and regulations. The rules and regulation that a bureaucracy puts in place help to guide the actions of workers and help to ensure that tasks are performed uniformly. So, these rules and regulations, for example, in an institution from today may come down from the corporate office. They might come down from a board of trustees or human resources

According to Weber, the ideal type of bureaucracy possessed rational grounds for every administrative act, and it rested on equality in the eyes of the law. He proposed the intended outcomes; allows for precision,

Does Max Weber’s characterization of modern bureaucracy help us in comprehending the workings of present day rational-legal organizations? Explain taking examples.

The classical approach to management is the oldest school of thought dating back to the late 1890’s and losing favor by the 1940’s. The contributions to the classic school of management included increasing productivity of the organization, and that of the worker, as well as providing the framework for management of diverse organizations. This methodology was a marriage of scientific, administrative, and

Classical Management Theory was introduced in the late 19th century during the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial

The improvement of productivity in an organization by various levels of employees is termed as the theory of classical management. The chain of command starts from the lowest employee up to the top managers who is responsible for supervising the activities of the organization. Moreover, it has been noted that at different levels of management, there specific guidelines that are designed to be followed by the worker to perform his or her duties to the maximum. Furthermore, impersonal relationships are not tolerated at workplaces and managers and workers must perform their tasks according to the set guidelines. In addition, the firing and hiring of workers should also be based on what they can deliver at different levels of production of the organization. Whereas Human Relations Movement is the human relation movement is one of the scenarios of how the human relations theory was

From the turn of the Century there was a significant development of management theory contributors from the period of 1910 to 2000. These theorists tended to be in the category of academics and management consultants. They were divided into two precise groups as practicing managers like Taylor and Fayol as well as social scientists like Mayo and McGregor, G.A.Cole, p3. Practicing manager’s theory tend to reflect upon applying personal experiences of management as well as producing principles of these theories which then could be applied to wider organisational universe to achieve effectiveness in work-force. Social scientists like Mayo and McGregor by contrast were academics that studied

Weber argues that bureaucracies as an organisational structure are technically greater than all other forms of organisations ,due to it being more rational and efficient; thus built on principles outlined by

“Scientific management is a system devised by industrial engineers for the purpose of serving the common interests of employers, workmen and society at large through the elimination of avoidable wastes, the general improvement of the processes and methods of production, and the just and scientific distribution of the product” (Hoxie, 1915:140).

The classical administrative management theory describes and emphasize on developing the managerial principles rather than work methods. (Tony; Pg. 49; 1986) The administrative approach in this theory concentrates on the overall organization. The classical administrative theory was being developed through the thoughts contributed by Max Weber, Henri Fayol, Mary Parker Follett and Chester I Barnard. (Reference for business, 2011) The importance of understanding about how an organization operates and the flow of information was been studied by the above people which helps them to develop the theory of classical administrative. This theory explains that an organization should have the formal hierarchy and general guidelines that will organize the department and manage the staff. At SEMCO it was different the