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... les in the method of payment: assurance of fair remuneration that encourages keenness by rewarding well-directed effort and it shall not lead to over-payment going beyond reasonable limits. 8. Centralisation. Part of the 'natural order', Fayol considered that an element of centralisation must always be present. He regarded the debate between centralisation and decentralisation to be one which had no exact solution. 9. Scalar chain (line of authority).
The unity of command can lead to tangled chains of authority which hinder communication. Hierarchic organisations regularly demanded that departments communicate with each other only through their heads. This meant that the volume of work handled by a department mushroomed as items went up and down the chain. 10. Order. 'A place for everyone and everyone in his place. ' For Fayol, this assumed the resolution of 'the two most difficult managerial activities: good organisation and good selection. ' He saw the basic problem as the balancing of an organisation's requirements with its resources. The larger the business, the more difficult this became: 11.
Equity. In order to obtain commitment from employees, they must be treated equally and fairly. 12. Stability of tenure of personnel. Matters of proportion, but employees need a period of stability in a job to deliver of their best. 13.
Initiative. Being allowed to think through a problem and implement a solution is a rewarding experience which increases motivation. Fayol cautions managers against the personal vanity which prevents them from allowing this opportunity to their subordinates. 14. Esprit de corps. 'Dividing enemy forces to weaken them is clever, but dividing one's own team is a grave sin against the business. ' (Fayol 1949) Fayol was the first person to give an actual definition of management which set out guidelines on forecasting, planning, organising, commanding and coordinating control.
He also laid most of the basic terminology and concepts which would be elaborated upon by researchers in the futures such as division of labour and unity of command and centralisation. However Fayol was essentially only describing the structure of formal organisation. While many of these principles have been absorbed into modern day organisations, many of the principles were not designed to cope with conditions of rapid change and issues of employee and shareholder participation in the decision making process of organisations. Max Weber is often regarded as the most important of the classical sociological theorist because he investigated many areas and had a wide range of interests including politics, history, language, religion, law, economics and administration. There appears to be similarities between Weber and Karl Marx concerning topics such as economic determinism and the extent to which these economic factors alone can be considered at the core of social structure. (Cuff, p. 97) Weber is well known for his theories on bureaucracy.
In the context of management it is the organisation form of certain dominant characteristics such as a hierarchy of authority and a system of rules. Weber identified three basic types of legitimate authority; traditional, charismatic, and rational. (Gerth and Mills, p. 18) Authority has to be distinguished from power. Power is a unilateral thing which enables a person to force another to behave in a certain way whether by means of strength or by rewards. Authority on the other hand implies acceptance of the rules by those over whom it is to be exercised within limits agreeable to the subordinates that Weber refers to in discussing legitimate authority. The main features of bureaucracy according to Max Weber were a continuous organisation of functions bounded by rules that individuals functioned within the limits of the specialisation of the work the degree of authority allocated and the rules governing the exercise of authority.
There also exists a hierarchical structure of offices, appointment to offices made on the grounds of technical competence only. The separation of officials from the ownership of the organisation and the authority was vested in the official positions and not in the personalities that held those posts (Gerth and Mills) Webers theories share a considerable amount of common ground with the thinking of Fayol. In particular, features such as scalar chain, specialisation, authority and the definition of jobs which were so essential to successful management as described by Fayol, are typical of bureaucracy. Bureaucracy does have certain advantages that can help administer control in the workplace. The fact that appointment, promotion and authority were dependent on technical competence and reinforced by written rules and procedures of promoting those most able to make managers rather than those favoured to manage practically forced workers seeking authority or promotion to comply with set standards. This process, although taken for granted prevents the emergence of nepotism and corruption, by forcing employees to comply to set controls if they wish to seek promotion and the financial incentives which come with it.
The adoption of a bureaucratic type of management systems allow organisations to grow and expand into large complex organized systems that are geared towards reaching goals. By setting an explicit goal for the firm to reach, head managers are able to gear the firm and all of the employees towards reaching the required goal through stimulating workplace productivity and offering promotional rewards and merits as incentives for employees to excel at their job. Using classical management theories, modern managers are able to devise ways of enforcing workplace compliance. Money and other financial rewards, which play a central role in our day to day lives, now play a fundamental part of the relationship between the worker and the firm. Organisations now reward employees based on their level of competence with rewards and promotions which help to stimulate healthy competitiveness amongst workers, increasing production efficiency. Scientific management and the division of labour allow job specialisation to greatly enhance a workers output thorough training and development.
Taking into account these processes, managers through effective planning and reviewing are able to use these incentives and theories to better control employee behaviour and output. References Allen, Gemmy, Management Modern, Supervision, 1998. BMGT 1301 DCCCD Cuff, E. C. , W. W. Sharrock and D.
W. Francis, Perspectives in Sociology, third edition, London, Routledge, 1992. HM 66 P 36 1984 Fayol, H. (1949) General and Industrial Management, translated from the French edition (Donor) by Constance Storrs, Pitman. Gerth, Hans and C. Wright Mills, From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, New York, Oxford University Press, 1958.
Kanigel, Robert. "Frederick Taylor's Apprenticeship. " The Wilson Quarterly Summer 1996: 44 Taylor, Frederick Winslow. The Principles of Scientific Management. 1911 Weisbord, Marvin R. Productive Workplaces. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Inc. , Publishers, 1987.
Were, Charles D. and Greenwood, Ronald G. "Organisation Theory and Frederick Taylor. " Public Administration Review May/June 1993: 270 - 272.
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