CLASSICAL SCHOOL OF THOUGHT

It was developed during the industrial revolution when problems related to

factory systems began, to recognize the roles that management plays in an
organization particularly focusing on the efficiency of the work process.
Classical approach of management professes the body of management thought
based on the belief that employees have only economical and physical needs
and that the social needs and needs for job satisfaction either does not
exist or unimportant. Accordingly, it advocates high specialization of la-
bor, centralized decision making and profit maximization.
The classical school is the oldest formal school of management
thought which began around 1900 and continued into the 1920s. The classi-
cal school of thought generally concerns ways to manage work and organiza-
tions more efficiently. Three areas of study that can be grouped under the
classical school are scientific management, administrative management, and
bureaucratic management.

CLASSICAL SCHOOL OF THOUGHT THEORIES

A. SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT

This method was developed in the USA in the

early part of the 20th century by Frederick Taylor.
He paid close attention to “Time and Motion” stud-
ies.

Time Studies
Here each worker is timed when performing a task
and then it provides the basis for the workers’
level of output per day (e.g. If it took a worker 2
minutes to perform a task, then this could be done
30 times per hour and 240 times in an 8-hour day.)
Frank Taylor was a mechanical engineer who had
FREDRICK TAYLOR sought for improvement of industrial efficiency
(Father of Scientific
Management)
 EXAMPLE

If workers were moving 12.5 tons of pig iron per day and they could be in-
centivized to try to move 47.5 tons per day, left to their own wits they
probably would become exhausted after a few hours and fail to reach their
goal.

• For instance, that not all the workers

The manager could deter-
mine the optimal timing
of lifting and resting
so that the workers
could move the 47 ½ tons
per day without tiring.
were capable of doing the job and only 1/8
were abe to do so, then it probably means
that this 1/8 of the workers are skilled
and are well suited for that job. That
is why it is very crucial in choosing
workers based on the field of expertise in
doing a particular job.

Taylor was concerned primar-

ily with factory management and
within that context, his emphasis
was mostly on the management of
production workers. Taylor be-
lieves that efficiency and disci-
pline were the two greatest fea-
tures of a good manager and a
good workforce but what he failed
to recognize was the high levels
of morale and motivation that
this system produces in the work
force.
SOLDIERING 3 CAUSES
1. High productivity of workers
means lesser needs of having
more workers
2. Employees take great care never
to work at a good pace for fear
that this faster pace would be-
come the new standard. (If em-
ployees are paid by the quantity
they produce, they fear that
management will decrease thei

“
He has observed that the work-
ers/ laborers purposely operates “
below their capacity (SOLDIERING)
per unit pay if the quantity in-
creases.
3. Workers waste much of their ef-
fort by relying on the rule-of-
thumb methods.
 SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT WAS BASED UPON 5 PRINCIPLES
• Develop a science for each man’s work

• Scientifically select the best man for the job and train him on the
procedures he is expected to follow.

• Cooperate with the men to ensure that work is done as prescribed

• Divide the work so that activities such as planning, organizing and

controlling are the prime responsibilities of management rather than
the individual worker.

• Instantly rewarding the worker economically when he performs according

to the prescription of management and punish him when he does other-
wise.

In the late 19th century, management decisions were often arbitrary

and workers often worked at an intentionally slow pace. There was little
in the way of systematic management and workers and management were often
in conflict. Scientific management was introduced in an attempt to create
a mental revolution in the workplace. It can be defined as the systematic
study of work methods in order to improve efficiency. Frederick W. Taylor
was its main proponent. Other major contributors were Frank Gilbreth,
Lillian Gilbreth, and Henry Gantt.
Scientific management has several major principles. First, it calls
for the application of the scientific method to work in order to determine
the best method for accomplishing each task. Second, scientific management
suggests that workers should be scientifically selected based on their
qualifications and trained to perform their jobs in the optimal manner.
Third, scientific management advocates genuine cooperation between workers
and management based on mutual self-interest. Finally, scientific manage-
ment suggests that management should take complete responsibility for
planning the work and that workers' primary responsibility should be im-
plementing management's plans. Other important characteristics of scien-
tific management include the scientific development of difficult but fair
performance standards and the implementation of a pay-for-performance in-
centive plan based on work standards.
Scientific management had a tremendous influence on management prac-
tice in the early twentieth century. Although it does not represent a com-
plete theory of management, it has contributed to the study of management
and organizations in many areas, including human resource management and
industrial engineering. Many of the tenets of scientific management are
still valid today.
 The primary criticisms of Taylor’s approach were his lack of con-
cern for the individual within the organization and for his over reli-
ance on economic motives. Nevertheless, his work added greatly to the
knowledge of the psychology of industrial work organization. It also set
the stage for a more comprehensive approach to the study of behavior of
the organization-man in the work place. Jaja (2003)

B. CLASSICAL ADMINSTRATIVE MANAGEMENT

The first expert of administrative management theory

was Henri Fayol (1841-1925).In Henri Fayol’s book
“ADMINSTRATIVE INDUSTRIELLE ET GENERAL” (1916) which
was late translated to English in 1929 meaning
“INDUSTRIAL AND GENERAL MANAGEMENT”. Here, he presented
the basic principles he felt a manager should adhere to
in managing an organization. While Taylor was concerned
with lower-level organization, Fayol was concerned with
higher level management. Born in 1841 and while working
as an engineer in a mining company, he improved the
HENRI FAYOL
virtual bankrupt condition to high success. Fayol is
(Father of modern
however distinguished in that he believed that manage-
operational man-
agement theory)
ment is a specialty in its own right and that an indi-
vidual can learn to become a successful manager.

Fayol described management as a scientific Planning – process of activities re-

process built up of five immutable elements
quired to meet a goal
Organizing – making orderly determina-
tion & arrangement of a task
Commanding- Involves guiding, supervis-
ing, motivating & leading people for at-
tainment of the time- oriented task
Coordinating- bringing together the ele-
ments
Controlling – having all the aspects
that contribute to meeting the goal
 14 PRINCIPLES OF FAYOL
• Division of labor • Centralization
• Authority and Responsibility • Hierarchy
• Discipline • Order
• Unity of command • Equity
• Unity of management • Stability of tenure of office
• Subordination of individual in- • Initiative
terest to that of organization
• Esprit de corps
• Remuneration

Other authors who contributed to the functions of management were Lu-

ther and Urwick (1937), here they described the functions of management
using the acronym POSDCORB- Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing, Co-
ordinating, Reporting and Budgeting.
Administrative management focuses on the management process and princi-
ples of management. In contrast to scientific management, which deals
largely with jobs and work at the individual level of analysis, adminis-
trative management provides a more general theory of management. Henri
Fayol is the major contributor to this school of management thought.
Fayol was a management practitioner who brought his experience to bear
on the subject of management functions and principles. He argued that man-
agement was a universal process consisting of functions, which he termed
planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating, and controlling. Fayol be-
lieved that all managers performed these functions and that the functions
distinguished management as a separate discipline of study apart from ac-
counting, finance, and production. Fayol also presented fourteen princi-
ples of management, which included maxims related to the division of work,
authority and responsibility, unity of command and direction, centraliza-
tion, subordinate initiative, and team spirit.

Although administrative management has been criticized as being rigid

and inflexible and the validity of the functional approach to management
has been questioned, this school of thought still influences management
theory and practice. The functional approach to management is still the
dominant way of organizing management knowledge, and many of Fayol's prin-
ciples of management, when applied with the flexibility that he advocated,
are still considered relevant
 C.BUREAUCRATIC MANAGEMENT

The concept of bureaucracy is generally associated

with the works of Max Weber (1864-1920). Weber stud-
ied the effects of social change in Europe at the
turn of the century, he believed bureaucracy was a
rational means of minimizing the cruelty, nepotism
and subjective practice common in earlier stages of
the industrial revolution. Until recently, Weber was
not treated as a
member of the classical management school. He was on-
ly interested in applied management problems. He de-
MAX WEBER fined bureaucracy as networks of social groups dedi-
cated to limited goals, organized for maximum effi-
ciency and regulated according to the principle of
legal rationality.

Some of the essential features of The major variables which character-

bureaucracy are:
• Specialization or division of la-
bor
• Hierarchy of authority in which a
lower office is supervised by a
higher one.
• Written rules and regulations.
• Rational application of rules and
procedures
• Selection and promotion based on
competence and not on irrelevant
mis-considerations
ize bureaucracy are:
• Specialization: specialized tasks
allocated to members
• Standardization: standard proce-
dure
• Formalization: written rules
• Centralization: authority located
at the top
• Configuration: shape of organiza-
tional role structure

Bureaucratic management focuses on the ideal form of organization.

Max Weber was the major contributor to bureaucratic management. Based on
observation, Weber concluded that many early organizations were ineffi-
ciently managed, with decisions based on personal relationships and loy-
alty. He proposed that a form of organization, called a bureaucracy,
characterized by division of labor, hierarchy, formalized rules, imper-
sonality, and the selection and promotion of employees based on ability,
would lead to more efficient management. Weber also contended that manag-
ers' authority in an organization should be based not on tradition or
charisma but on the position held by managers in the organizational hier-
REFERENCES:
Enyia C. D.(2015).A review of the evolution of management schools of
thought www.researchgate.net
https://www.tutorialspoint.com/management_priciples/classical-schools-
thought.html
www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/management-thought.html
https://www.slideshare.net/cecillacapuno/classical-approach-2/itroduction-
to-classical-approach
https://www.slideshare.net/Ravi-Muchhal-Doon-Business-School-PDGM-2013-15/
classical-theory-of-management
CLASSICAL
SCHOOL OF
THOUGHT
Submitted by:
Marlon Roy M. Bautista
Marvin Calusor

Submitted to:
Engr. Wenceslao C. Perante