The Classical Management Theory is thought to have originated around the year 1900 and dominated management thinking into the 1920s, focusing on the efficiency of the work process. It has three schools of thinking: Scientific management, which looks at ‘the best way’ to do a job; Bureaucratic management, which focuses on rules and procedures, hierarchy and clear division of labour; and Administrative management, which emphasises the flow of information within the organisation.
Scientific Management
Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915) is known as the father of scientific management. His approach emphasised empirical research to increase organisational productivity by increasing the efficiency of the production process. In the United States especially, skilled labour was in short supply at the beginning of the twentieth century. The only way to expand productivity was to raise the efficiency of workers. Scientific management theory states that jobs should be designed so that each worker has a well-specified, well-controlled task and specific procedures and methods for each job must be strictly followed.
Taylor's management theory rests on a fundamental belief that managers are not only superior intellectually to the average employee, but that they have a positive duty to supervise staff and organise their work activities. Thus, it was only applied to low-level routine and repetitive tasks that could be managed at supervisory level.
Taylor developed four principles of scientific management:
1. A ‘best’ methodology should be developed scientifically for each task.
2. Managers should select the best person to perform the task and ensure that the best training is given.
3. Managers are responsible for ensuring that the best pers ...