Theories of organizational behaviour

Classical Organizational Theory, Neoclassical Organizational Theory, Contingency Theory, Systems Theory

1. THEORIES OF ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR PRESENTED BY SIMRAN KAUR

2. CLASSICAL ORGANIZATIONAL THEORY Developed in first half of 20 th century It represents the merger of scientific management, bureaucratic theory and administrative theory It is rigid and mechanistic Its major deficiency was that it attempted to explain peoples’ motivation to work strictly as a function of economic reward

3. CLASSICAL ORGANIZATIONAL THEORY Rational approach based on Transparency Adjustability Need for possibility of replacing parts of the organization and avoid key staff Need to reduce infighting Top down management and control Professional and rational behaviour without disruptive emotional relationships

4. SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT It was originated in beginning of 20 th century by Fredrick W. Taylor It focused on getting the best people and equipment, and scrutinizing each production task It is based on an idea of systemization where attempts were made to enhance the efficiency of procedures to best effect via scientific analyses and experiments It is quickly adopted by large mass-producing industrial companies

5. SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT The approach to increased productivity is through mutual trust between management and workers 4 principles of Scientific Management 1. science, not rule of thumb 2. scientific selection of workers 3. management and labour cooperation rather than conflict 4. scientific training of workers

6. SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT The philosophy of “production first, people second” has left a legacy of declining production and quality, dissatisfaction with work, loss of pride in workmanship, and a near complete loss of organizational pride

7. ADMINISTRATIVE THEORY It was developed by Henry Fayol Top down approach Coordination ( Hierarchial pyramid) 1. All employee are accountable to one superior only 2. A superior can only have the number of subordinates which he/she can manage 3. Routine work must be performed by subordinates so that superior can attend to special tasks Specialization (Distribution of activities in working groups)

8. ADMINISTRATIVE THEORY Fayol’s principles of management Division of work Authority and responsibility Discipline Unity of command Unity of direction Subordination of individual interest Remuneration of personnel Centralization

9. ADMINISTRATIVE THEORY Fayol’s principles of management 9. Scalar chain 10. Order 11. Equity 12. Stability of tenure of personnel 13. Initiative 14. Esprit de corpe

10. BUREAUCRACY MODEL It was developed by Max Weber, who is also known as Father of Sociology It includes social and historical perspective According to Weber, the public employee must act as if the superior’s interests were his own and thus stay in his bureaucratically assigned role According to Weber, bureaucracy is “a specific administrative structure, which is based on a legal and rule-oriented authority”

11. BUREAUCRACY MODEL Bureaucracy has the following characteristics: 1. E stablished distribution of work between the members of the organization 2. An administrative hierarchy 3. A rule-oriented system, which describes the performance of the work 4. Separation of personnel possessions and rights for the office 5. Selection of staff according to technical qualifications 6. Employment involves a career

12. BUREAUCRACY MODEL Weber’s bureaucratic approach 1. Structure 2. Specialization 3. Predictability and stability 4. Rationality 5. Democracy The fascination with goal-rational action is expressed in Weber’s different perceptions of authority (Traditional authority; Legal, rule-oriented authority; Charismatic authority)

13. NEOCLASSICAL ORGANIZATION THEORY Improvements in organization theory led to consideration of work environment Organizations can succeed with a cohesive environment where subordinates are accepting of managerial authority The key to this theory is maintaining equilibrium Merger of belief of Mayo, Roethlisberger, Bernard and Shaw

14. HAWTHORNE EXPERIMENTS It challenged classical view It was conducted by Mayo and Roethlisberger in late 1920’s at Western Electric plant in Hawthorne, Illionis While manipulating conditions in the work environment ( eg , intensity of lightning), they found that any change had a positive impact on productivity The act of paying attention to employees in a friendly and non-threatening way was sufficient by itself to increase output

15. BARNARD’S THEORY It defined organization as a system of consciously coordinated activities It stressed role of executive in creating an atmosphere where is coherence of values and purposes It proposed that a manager’s authority is derived from subordinates’ acceptance, instead of hierarchial power structure of the organization

16. SIMON’S THEORY Simon’s theory proposed a model of “limited rationality” to explain Hawthorne experiments It stated that workers could respond unpredictability to managerial attention

17. CONTINGENCY THEORY It deals primarily with conflict Conflict is unavoidable but manageable Organizations evolve to meet their own strategic needs in rational, sequential and linear ways Adapting to changes in environment is important to managerial and organizational success

18. CHANDLER THEORY Chandler studied 4 large US corporations He proposed that an organization would naturally evolve to meet needs of its strategy Organizations would act in a rational, sequential and linear manner Effectiveness was a function of management’s ability to adapt to environmental changes

19. LAWRENCE AND LORSCH THEORY Lawrence and Lorsch studied how organizations adjusted to fit their environment In highly volatile industries, they noted the importance of giving managers at all levels the authority to make decisions over their domain Managers would be free to make decisions contingent on the current situation

20. SYSTEMS THEORY It was originally proposed by Hungarian biologist, Ludung von Bertalanffy , in 1928 All the components of the organization are interrelated and that changing one variable might impact many others Organizations are viewed as open systems, continually interacting with their environment Non-linear relationships might exist between variables

21. SYSTEMS THEORY One of the most salient argument against Systems Theory is that complexity introduced by nonlinearity make it difficult or impossible to fully understand the relationships between variables

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