Classical Approaches

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Classical Approaches

• COMM 254 Organizational Communication

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Some Background...

• All were developed in the early 1900s
• Basic assumptions regarding people and
  motivation
• People are primarily motivated by economic forces
• Employees need direction and control to
  effectively fulfill their duties

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Machine Metaphor Commonalities

• Specialization
• Standardization/Replaceability
• Predictability

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Scientific Management

• Frederick Taylor, American engineer
• Focus on work design rather than
  organizational design

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Basic Principles of Scientific Management

• Production and management as "science
• One best way and piece rate compensation
  standards discovered through time-and-motion
  studies
• First-class workers selected and trained
• Clear distinction between management and worker
  types

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General Management (Henri Fayol)

• Elements of Management
• Planning Looking ahead to determine the best way
  to achieve organizational goals.
• Organizing Arranging and evaluating human
  resources.
• Command Setting out employee tasks.
• Coordination Harmonizing separate activities.
• Control Assessing fit between goals and
  activities.

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General Management (Henri Fayol)

• Principles of Management
• Organizational Structure (p. 6)
• Organizational Power (p. 8)
• Organizational Reward (p. 8)
• Organizational Attitude (p. 9)

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General Managementand Bureaucracy

• General Management
• Henri Fayol
• French industrialist
• Bureaucracy
• Max Weber
• German university professor

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Fayol and WeberSome Commonalities

• Division of labor
• Hierarchy
• Position over individual
• Rules (Rational-legal authority)
• "Universalism" -- equity

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Fayol and Weber Some Important Differences

• The primary goal of the theory
• Fayol Provide a prescriptive model for
  organizational effectiveness
• Weber Lay out the features of an abstract or
  idealized organizational form (the bureaucracy)

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Fayol and Weber Some Important Differences

• How to establish and maintain order and
  compliance
• Fayol Clear rules and structure balanced with
  fair remuneration, fair discipline, a good dose
  of kindness, and the development of a sense of
  unity
• Weber Clear rules and structure reinforced by an
  inflexible, predictable system and impersonal
  work relationships

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Fayol and Weber Some Important Differences

• Decision making strategies
• Fayol Centralized (restricted to upper levels of
  management) or decentralized depending on the
  situational demands
• Weber Centralized only

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Organization as Machine A Video Illustration
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Classical Approaches A View of Communication

• Content ? Task
• Direction ? Downward vertical
• Exception Fayols bridge
• Channel ? Written preferred
• Style ? Formal