Development of Administrative Thought

Introducción

In this work we will show 4 different reports that were assigned to us by our Professor, so that we could read them and hand in a report about each one.

The reports that we will talk about are: “Development of Administrative Thought”, “Harnessing Creativity and Innovation at the Workplace”, “High- Performance Teams” & “The Discipline of Teams” all will include the authors name, the purpose of the article, the basic argument and the mayor findings and conclusions.

Report “Development of Administrative Thought”

This is a Historical Overview created by Fred C. Lunenburg, who graduated from Sam Houston State University and by Beverly J. Irby who graduated from Texas A & M University. They say that in general, four models emerge: classical organizational theory, the human relations approach, the behavioral science approach, and the post-behavioral science era. Continuing after what was just mentioned the commented that the classical “rational” model evolved around the ideas of scientific and administrative management, including the study of administrative processes and managerial functions.

They explained that the Classical organizational theory emerged during the early years of the twentieth century. And that it includes two different management perspectives: scientific management and administrative management. Historically, scientific management focused on the management of work and workers. Administrative management addressed issues concerning how an overall organization should be structured.

They mentioned the Scientific Management; the practice of management was based on experience and common sense. Frederick W. Taylor (we talked about his theory in a PowerPoint presentation) tried to change that view. Taylor pursued the idea that through careful scientific analysis the efficiency of work could be improved. His basic theme was that managers should study work scientifically to identify the “one best way” to perform a task so that they could reach the organizations goal faster and more efficiently.

Taylor’s (1911) scientific management consists of four principles:

1. Scientific Job Analysis. Through observation, data gathering, and careful measurement, management determines the “one best way” of performing each jog. Such job analysis replaces the old rule-of-thumb method.

2. Selection of Personnel. Once the job is analyzed, the next step is to scientifically select and then train, teach, and develop workers. In the past, workers chose their own work and trained themselves.

3. Management Cooperation. Managers should cooperate with workers to ensure that all work being done is in accordance with the principles of the science that has been developed.

4. Functional Supervising. Managers assume planning, organizing, and decision-making activities, whereas workers perform their jobs. In the past, almost all work and the greater part of the responsibility were thrust on workers.

Taylor’s four principles of scientific management were designed to maximize worker productivity.

Another theory mentioned Administrative Management whose primary contributors were Henri Fayol (1949), Luther Gulick and Lyndall Urwick (1937), and Max Weber (1947). Whereas scientific management focuses on jobs of individual workers, administrative management concentrates on the management of an entire organization. Fayol claimed that all managers perform five basic functions: planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating, and controlling.

Fayol’s (1949) fourteen principles of management emphasize chain of command, allocation of authority, order, efficiency, equity, and stability. Max Weber (1947) also recognized the importance of these factors, but Fayol was the first to recognize management as a continuous process. One of the most influential contributors to classical organizational theory was German sociologist Max Weber (1947), who first described the concept of bureaucracy. Weber’s contributions were not recognized until years after his death. We think that Henry Fayol was the main contributor to this theory, but that doesn’t mean he was the only one because Max Weber also made special contributions, we consider them the fathers of the Administrative Management Theory.

Chester Barnard was also mentioned as he proposed the Barnard: Effectiveness/Efficiency. Although a contemporary of many human relationists, Chester Barnard was one of the first authors to take the behavioral science approach. His best-known idea is the cooperative system, an attempt to integrate, in a single framework, human relations and classical management principles. His main point is that an organization can operate and survive only when both the organization’s goals and the goals of the individuals working for it are kept in equilibrium. Thus, manages must have both human and technical skills.

This report wasn’t hard to write because these theories had already been explained by our other peers in their class presentations, All the authors recently mentioned were considered by us as the main contributors to the theories written in this paper.

Report “Harnessing Creativity and Innovation at the Workplace”

Written by: Olivier Serrat from the Asian Development Bank.

Creativity is a fundamental part in the innovation process that markets value as a creator and sustainer of performance and change.

Creativity has always been at the heart of human endeavor. Allied to innovation, which creates unexpected value, it is now recognized as central to organizational performance. We think that creativity is essentially a huge part of the success a company gets because creativity is