Historical background of administration and administrative theory

In this content, the history of the administration is developed considering its beginnings, the contributions of each civilization, the stage of the industrial revolution in which it had to adapt to emerging technologies, even the precursors of modern administration. The above in order to understand the following content that is based on administrative theories, how they emerged and why, what were the advantages that were obtained from them and their importance of understanding for the application of these, hoping that it is generated in this way a margin of alternatives that can be applied in current organizations.

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Introduction

In this content, the history of the administration is developed considering its beginnings, the contributions of each civilization, the stage of the industrial revolution in which it had to adapt to emerging technologies, even the precursors of modern administration.

The above in order to understand the following content that is based on administrative theories, how they emerged and why, what were the advantages that were obtained from them and their importance of understanding for the application applied in current organizations. of these, hoping that a margin of alternatives will be generated that can

1. Definition of administration

Administration is a widely used term today, it is generally understood in the simplest way of how to make and use resources properly, but this goes beyond what can be seen since this word has had a great evolution since its term was defined to this day, as it has been transforming as man requires.

It is necessary to know how the administration was started, developed, adapted and established because it can show the correct way to carry out the different activities in a company, in a school, in hospitals or even in the government itself.

To better understand what administration is, the following definitions from specialized authors are presented:

1. Science composed of principles, techniques and practices, whose application to human groups allows the establishment of rational systems of cooperative effort, through which common purposes can be achieved that individually cannot be achieved in social organisms (Jimenez, 1990). the coordination of men and material resources for the achievement of organizational objectives, which is achieved through four elements: Direction towards objectives, through people, through techniques and within an organization (Kast, 1990). It is the process to plan, organize, direct and control the use of resources to achieve organizational objectives (Chiavenato, 2006).

According to the previous content, it can be understood that administration is considered a science that includes methods, techniques and theories for the use of resources that have been put into practice in organized groups of people to effectively and efficiently achieve a common goal.

2. Historical background of the administration

2.1 Ancient civilizations

The administration is born from the time that human beings had to join groups to meet their survival needs, so they organized to complement their abilities, define rules and take care of their resources.

As the groups managed to improve their systems of collaboration, they grew to form civilizations, where the administration had to adapt to the new circumstances they faced.

2.2 Summaries

Antecedents of administrative thought have been found since the 10th century BC when the Biblical legislator Solomon established trade agreements, construction agreements and formed peace treaties, in addition to distributing resources equitably among the population, as well as in the year 5000 BC the Sumerians achieved the invention of writing and record keeping for tax administrative control.

2.3 Egypt

The contribution of the Egyptians were the pyramids, since they already managed administrative and organizational skills, since they had to plan the number of blocks, from where they would be extracted, how many men they would need and especially the construction time, thus denoting that its resource planning and administration system was adapting more to what we know today.

2.4 Babylon

Hammurabi king of Babylon drafted mercantile laws, dealing with issues such as sales, loans, contracts, partnerships, agreements and promissory notes, in addition his transactions were recorded on tablets as a means of control, on the other hand, here the non-delegation of responsibilities began, since that for example the works supervisor was punished and not the subordinates for noncompliance with them.

In addition, the Hammurabi code in force in the period 2000 and 1700 BC was an instrument that began to define minimum wages , control, deposits and commercial responsibilities. Subsequent to this, in 604 BC, when Nebuchadnezzar ascended the throne, he implemented production and payment controls, as well as salary incentives in textile factories.

2.5 China

In 500 BC, the writings of Mencius and Chow denote that the Chinese studied behavioral principles of organization, planning, direction, and control, in addition to knowledge of concepts such as; organization, functions, cooperation, procedures to improve efficiency, and the same control techniques found in the Chow constitution which was a directory of all the emperor's servants.

Around 2350 and 2256 a. C. Emperor Yao made the first use of a council meeting to make important decisions, and it also served as a communication tool with his subjects.

2.6 Greece

In Greece they managed to have the capacity to manage the operations of commercial companies, they developed a democratic government that contained an administrative process, it is in this civilization where the origin of the scientific method is found They discovered the research criteria and introduced science and education in many aspects to the administration.

It was in this segment of history that Plato contributed the first theory on the specialization and division of labor, where among some ideas he mentioned that a worker should focus on performing the tasks for which he had the ability to do it. For his part, Socrates mentioned that a good administrator would make his subordinates obey and comply, selecting the ideals for each position, regardless of the type of trade they were managing.

2.7 India

Around 321 a. C. the Arthasastra of Kautilya, a contribution that defines the political, social and economic science of the state, which detailed the obligations of the king, his ministers and advisers, on council meetings, issues of war and peace, where he also made Reference to the organization of business, laws, courts, municipal government, social custom, marriage, divorce, women's rights, income, taxes, mines and factories, markets, among others, groups all these aspects in order to achieve the success of the policy although it was pointed out as an element that had no human compassion, much less morality.

2.8 Rome

The greatest contribution known to them is that of managing a population of approximately 50 million people, through control and administration strategies such as the one applied in AD 284. By Diocleciano that consisted of the delegation of authority, by means of the division of its territory in provinces, dioceses and geographical divisions.

2.9 The Industrial Revolution

This stage is marked by the development of steam and hydraulic energy machines, which gave great help to production systems, in this way large numbers of personnel began to be needed, as well as new marketing and capitalization systems, which led to it began to contract labor, division of labor, to specialize the workers it took training, incentives and sanctions.

Chiavenato, I. (2006) mentions four main stages of the industrial revolution:

1. Mechanization of industry and agriculture: At the end of the 18th century, the spinning machine (Hargreaves, 1767) emerged, from the hydraulic and mechanical loom, in addition to the cotton stripping machine, which replaced man's work and muscular strength, by work. animal and even the hydraulic wheel.

1. Application of motive power to industry: Application of steam engines for transformation in workshops, transport, agriculture and communications.

1. Development of the manufacturing system: The craftsman and his small workshop disappeared to give way to the operator, to small and large factories based on the division of labor.

1. A Spectacular Acceleration of Transportation and Communications: Robert Fulton Steam Navigation, 1807, and later propeller wheels became propellers. The locomotive was perfected by Stephenson. The first railway was built in England, other means of communication soon appeared, such as the electric telegraph (Morse, 1835), the postal stamp in England (1840) and the telephone (Graham Bell, 1876).

These were the symptoms of industrial development and the profound changes that occurred at a faster rate. In the second industrial revolution I appreciate the steelmaking process, perfecting the dynamo and the invention of the internal combustion engine.

3. Precursors of modern administration

3.1 Adam Smith

Scottish economist, father of economic liberalism, his work was taken from his great work "Wealth of Nations" published in 1776, which emphasizes the division of labor that the same number of people are capable of doing based on three characteristics:

1. The increase in skill of each individual worker The saving of time that is commonly lost when moving from one area to another of work The invention of numerous machines that facilitate and shorten the work, in addition to training a man to do the job several.

It also established the following economic-administrative principles:

• Economic freedoms benefit the entire society, under the premise that each individual will maximize their own interest. The invisible hand of the market and competition restrict their own individual interests, thus ensuring the maximization of social interest. Work is the generator of Wealth. The law of supply and demand determines the prices of goods. Any government interference would tend to break the natural balance. Smith pondered the concept of free enterprise; This trend based on the liberal principle of "letting go" fit admirably into technological and industrial thinking and gave impetus to industrial development.

3.2 Roberto Owen

Welsh businessman who in the early nineteenth century, became the forerunner of human relations in the workplace, because the hours of work was more than 16 hours due to liberalism, with 10-year-old apprentices without security conditions and hygiene, focusing on improving personnel administration.

3.3 Richard Arkwright

Know How is attributed to this character, who prepared the arrival of the great company in the industry, this administrative technique provided a successful coordination of men, money, materials and machines in large-scale production, it was also a promoter and practitioner of concepts in personnel administration.

It also has contributions such as continuous production, planning for the location of the plant, the coordination of machines, materials, man and capital, factory discipline and the division of labor, which is why it is known as a pioneer in the use of efficient principles of administration.

3.4 Charles Babbage

English mathematician who developed analytical and differential calculus, creator of the first mechanical calculating apparatus that allowed the first computer to be generated, proposed production in processes, establishing the cost-per-process technique.

4. Evolution of administrative theory

The study of administrative thought, from its beginnings to the present, has been consolidating the administrative theory with which one works and thinks.

From the year 1900, it is considered that theories of administrative thought should already be discussed.

The administration can be studied with different theories, approaches or schools, these have emerged according to the needs of man to adjust to the circumstances to which the contributions of his evolution have brought them.

Consequently, each administrative theory arose as a response to the most important problems faced by organizations of their time and moment, the prevailing theories were successful in presenting specific solutions to such problems.

It is understood in this way that these are systematic groupings of concepts and principles, applicable to current situations, so it is necessary to know them, understand them and study them in order to obtain a wide margin of suitable alternatives for particular solutions within organizations.

4.1 Classic management approach

The postulates of this approach dominated the administration of organizations during the first four decades of the 20th century, this is because two engineers, the American Frederick Winslow Taylor, started the so-called school of scientific administration that sought to increase the efficiency of the company, by means of methods of administration between the tasks of the worker and the production, while the European Henri Fayol developed the classical theory that focused more on the structure that an organization must have to be efficient and effective.

Two orientations were obtained from these currents:

1. Scientific management in which the main theme was to increase productivity by increasing the efficiency of the operational level, so there was a bottom-up approach (from the worker to the manager), from the parts to the whole. This focused on the movements necessary to carry out each task, operations and positions that constituted the so-called Rational Labor Organization.

This school of scientific administration was being developed in the United States, formed in addition to Taylor by:

• Henry Lawrence Gantt: Your contribution was the “Gantt charts” or timelines that indicate the activities to be carried out and the adequate time to do them, also gave importance to psychology in the company, to be able to know the motivations, strengths and weaknesses of the collaborators, also considering the training as a good running of the company. Henry Ford: Developed administrative practices, such as reducing production times through the efficient use of machinery and raw materials, reducing inventories in process, increasing productivity through operator specialization. Frank Bunker Gilbreth: I carry out a job that included understanding the human factor and knowledge of materials, tools, machines and facilities. With these elements, I develop ergonomics,Also known as human engineering, which is the study of effective methods that best combined human anatomy with machines, materials, and other means of production, in addition to the physical workspace. (Hernandez and Rodriguez, 2006).

1. The current of the anatomists and physiologists of the organization developed in France, in which its base was to increase the efficiency of the company from the form and disposition of members of the organization, unlike the scientific administration, was emphasizing that the Tasks had to be executed from the top down and from the whole to the parts, thus the attention was focused on the organizational structure in the elements of the administration and in the departmentalization. This school had as exponents:

• James D. Mooney: Did an investigation into the structuring of the Catholic Church, showing its organization over time, its hierarchy of authority and its coordination, the church had such a simple and efficient hierarchical organization that it could operate satisfactorily, under the command of a single executive head. So this served as a model for many organizations Luther Gulick: Established four principles of administration, specialization, authority, breadth of administration, and differentiation.

4.2 Scientific theory

It was developed mainly by Frederick Winslow Taylor, the main thought of this theory is the emphasis placed on tasks, since there is a better way to do any job.

Its name is due to the attempt to apply the methods of science to the administration to achieve maximum business efficiency, such as experimentation, observation and measurement, with a bottom-up approach (from the worker to the manager), from the parties to everything.

4.2.1 Principles of scientific administration:

A principle determined by the engineers of the scientific administration that was a form of forecasting, by means of which one could standardize and establish rules of conduct for any situation, those established by Taylor are the following:

1. Planning principle: Substitute the improvisation of the operator with proven scientific methods. Principle of preparation: Select by means of scientific methods the best personnel to train them and to produce more and better. Control Principle: The work is only carried out according to the established norms and this must be supervised so that it is fulfilled. Principle of execution: The work is carried out with discipline according to the responsibilities that are held.

In this scientific administration, the belief that everyone is motivated by money began, so productivity increases were implemented through regulations, rewards and punishments, which led to treating the human element as an instrument that only he received orders, executed work, and lacked initiative.

I was looking for maximum performance and not optimal performance, since efficiency is only measured by how quickly tasks were performed.

On the other hand, he studied companies as an entity independent of their environment.

4.3 Classic management theory

The classical theory was distinguished from the scientific one in the structure that an organization must have, the tasks had to be executed from top to bottom and from the whole to the parts. Henri Fayol, creator of classical theory, emphasizes that every company must fulfill six basic functions:

1. Techniques: Related to production. Commercial: referring to the purchase, sale or exchange. Financial: Search and management of capital, make the best use of available resources. Security: Protection of goods and people, under any circumstance.: Relating to inventories, records, balances, costs and statistics. Administrative: Corresponding to the integration of the other five functions in management. Administrative functions coordinate and synchronize the other functions of the company and are always above them.

Fayol mentions that the first five functions cannot alone formulate a plan for the company, since this area is exclusive to the administration, which defines it as the act of planning, organizing, directing, coordinating and controlling:

1. Planning: Program the activities of the company according to the future. Organization: Define the assignments of tasks and resources, for the fulfillment of objectives. Direction: Responsibility to guide staff to achieve the proposed goals. Coordination: Union with all areas of the company to define the activities to be carried out Control: Check that the provisions of the plan are complied with.

He also defined that these functions mentioned above can be implemented by any hierarchy of the organization.

He identified 14 basic principles, within which he specifies that they can be adaptable, measurable and universal to any situation:

1. Division of work: Specialization according to tasks with people to comply with efficiency. Authority and responsibility: Give orders and comply with them. Discipline: In company activities such as obedience, dedication and respect for the rules.: There is only one supervisor for each collaborator. Management unit: A single plan and a single boss). Subordination of the individual interest to the general interest. Remuneration: Reciprocity, wages must be fair for the employees and for the organization. Centralization: Authority is concentrated at the highest level of hierarchy. Scalar chain: Hierarchy. Order: Material and human. Equity: Achieving a person's loyalty through kindness and justice. Staff stability: Decrease turnover,for a person to remain in office and be positive for the organization. Initiative: Visualize projects and monitor their success. Group spirit: Harmony and unity of people to carry out activities in a better way.

The classical theory criticizes the absence of experimental work, since the method is pointed out as empirical, without putting elements to the test, since its claims are revoked when they are put to experimentation and, like scientific theory, it has a system approach closed, which only studies the variables within the organization.

Despite the criticisms, this theory is used by novices in the administration since it divides in a simple way, the routine administrative tasks and the organization segments it into simple and understandable categories.

4.4 Administration School of Human Relations

In this approach, the theory of administration begins to revolutionize, adapting not only to aspects of scientific theory, such as finding maximum production based only on engineering or focusing on the organizational structure of classical theory, if not starting to give it the importance that the human element deserved.

This humanistic approach was born with the emergence of the Theory of human relations in the United States developed by Elton Mayo et al., Where the priority began to be the protection and care of people, as social sciences such as psychology began to emerge from work.

Practically the essence of the movement was that achieving greater productivity required greater employee motivation and satisfaction.

4.4.1 Origins of the theory of Human Relations

According to (Chiavenato, 2006), the theory has its origins in the following facts:

1. The need to humanize and democratize the administration, freeing it from the rigid and mechanistic concepts of classical Theory. The development of the human sciences, mainly psychology. The ideas of the dynamic psychology of Kurt Lewin were central to the administration's humanism The conclusions of the Hawthorne experiment carried out in 1927 and 1932, they put in check the principles of classical theory.

At this stage, several management instruments emerged as a result of the Hawthorne experiment, which continue to be applied in current companies. (Hernandez and Rodriguez, 2006)

An interview was conducted at Western Electric Company where the following advantages could be detected:

• They help the individual to get rid of useless emotional complications and clearly express their problem. They help the integration of work teams. Through the interview, the desire and the ability to work better with the management is developed. The interview is of great importance for training. of managers. It is a source of information of great objective value for the administration.

The classification of groups established by Mayo was studied:

• The formal group is made up of hierarchies of authority and functions of any organization, regardless of size. The union and its hierarchies belong to the formal group. The informal group is the result of the social relationship of people in the company (organization). Over time, leaders, shared values, rules of behavior and traditions emerge, as well as subgroups formed by friendship, sex, religion, class feeling (workers and managers).

On the other hand, Kurt Lewin, who generated group dynamics, defined leadership as: Being a leader is influencing others to achieve a valuable goal.

4.5 Structuralist school

(Hernandez and Rodriguez, 2006) defines structuralism as “the sociological study of the different forms of social organization, established patterns of interaction, vision (way of thinking) and elements of social stratification (classes and hierarchies), as well as the functions of its members by sex, age and social position, in order to know how social organizations work, change, adapt and / or are destroyed ”.

In this stage the following concepts are defined:

• The authority system as a form of government for the proper functioning of the company. The organizational communication system can be established in different flows in any direction of the hierarchy, vertically and horizontally. The structure of functional behavior that studies the way The collaborators, their functions and the certain assigned work areas carry out the operations. The formalization or bureaucratization structure where rules have been established for the correct operation of the company.

4.5.1 Characteristics of structuralism

In this current sociologists try to include the behavior of the collaborator in the organizational structure, to visualize it as a whole.

It also analyzes the classification of the problems generated by the hierarchical functions. The main authors of this theory are Max Weber, Cheste Barnard, Renate Mayntz, Amitai Etzioni and Ralph Dahrendorf.

Weber's ideal model of bureaucracy comprises:

• Maximum division of labor.Hierarchy of authority.Rules that define responsibility and labor.Cold attitude of the administrator.Technical qualification and safety at work.  Avoid corruption.

Mayntz established the typology of organizations through three structures:

1. Hierarchical.Democratic.Technical.

Amitai Etzioni, who established a typology of organizations in:

4.6 Neoclassical theory of administration

This theory is focused on adapting the classical theory to the problems and sizes of the organization, through the contribution of the other theories.

The neoclassical approach is based on the following foundations (Chiavenato, 2006):

1. Administration is an operational process made up of functions such as planning, organization, direction, and control. Given that administration encompasses several; In business situations, it is necessary to be based on principles of predictive value. Management is a science that, like medicine or engineering, must be based on universal principles. Management principles are true, just like those of the logical and physical sciences. Culture and the physical and biological universe affect the administrator's environment. As science art, management theory need not encompass all knowledge to serve as a scientific foundation for management principles.

The neoclassical Theory considers that the administration is a basic social technique, which implied that the administrators had to specialize in their work, according to the techniques, tools and the necessary personnel, the functions of the administrator: planning, organization, direction and control. Together, these administrative functions constitute the administrative process.

4.7 Systemic school of administration

This taking theory began from the 1960s with the work of the German biologist Ludwig von Bertalanffy, in which different sciences are taken into account to bring together principles of a physical, mathematical, biological, psychological nature, among others, so that the discoveries found in each science could be useful for the others, obtaining with this a better complexity to face situations, problems or limitations of the company, which is why it is obtained that those interdependent entities begin to be understood as systems, but that related to each other, they produce a unified whole.

There are two types of systems:

• Closed systems: They do not interact with and have no influence on it. Open systems: They recognize the dynamic interaction between itself and its environment.

Organizations are entities that cannot survive if they do not include their decision-making environment, since they must take into account the economic situation, markets, policies, advances in technology, social customs and dealings with others. social groups.

Systems theory is the least criticized, due to the fact that the systematic perspective seems to agree with the structural and functionalist concern to take into account the environment of an organization.

4.8 Situational theory

This theory is mainly based on studying, analyzing and observing the company from the inside out.

The main representatives are:

• Kurt Lewin: Conducted research at the University of Iowa to determine the behaviors that made a leader successful and found 3 styles:
  • Autocratic.Democratic.

• Paul R. Lawrence and Jay W. Lorsch: In 1972 they did an investigation that about how the internal environment of the organization adapts to the external one, what are the cause-effect relationships and how it achieves the stated objectives, was how this theory emerged.

The situational theory raises new aspects with reference to efficiency and effectiveness, since in the previous theories as they only cared about a closed system they focused on efficiency, based only on ends and not on means, while achieving objectives it is what efficiency is in charge of.

conclusion

The main schools, theories and principles of administrative thought have been presented that have contributed to complementing it in the form of the needs that were exceeding until they were adapted to what we know today.

Each one maintains its own perception of the situation in which they found themselves, how they tried to manage and adapt it with respect to aspects, technology, humanism, politics, economy, among others, in order to generate new opportunities and experiments that allowed them improve the previous one.

Regarding the first two, the classical and scientific, they overlook or inadequately treat some important aspects of organizations, since the one of the great disadvantages is that they did not take into account the human element with the importance it should, because they mentioned that they were only looking for the maximum production at their expense.

The school of human relations had to adapt to take into account that great deficiency of the previous ones, betting on the collaborators and beginning to understand the value they had, how they should listen to them and even offer them incentives when the objectives of both parties were met.

The most recent approaches: the neoclassical school best adapted the thought of classical theory to structure it with the division that is known to this day; Planning, organization, direction and control. In addition, it began to define the importance of the responsibility of the administrator and the other positions in the hierarchy.

The systemic school saw the organization as a unified system that has a purpose that is made up of interdependent parts related to each other (processes), as part of the external environment, instead of treating each part separately, with its branch based on mathematics and the situational school that includes the recent approach based on business excellence and quality.

Bibliography

Chiavenato, I. (2006). Introduction to the general theory of administration. McGrawHill Interamericana.

Hernandez and Rodriguez, S. (2006). Introduction to administration. Mexico: Mc Graw-Hill.

Jimenez, W. (1990). Introduction to the study of administrative theory. Costa Rica: Economic Culture Fund.

Kast, F. (1990). Administration in organizations: systems and contingency focus. McGraw-Hill Interamericana.

Lara, JM (05/22/2011). Hm contemporary. Obtained from

hmcontemporaneo.wordpress.com/2011/05/22/621/

Pereira, E. (2017). Marketing. Obtained from

Silva, AM (2005). The so-called industrial revolution. Caracas: Andrés Bello Catholic University..

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It is the minimum amount of money that a worker is paid in a certain country, through an officially established law.

It was developed mainly by Frederick Winslow Taylor, the main thought of this theory is the emphasis placed on tasks, since there is a better way to do any job. (Hernandez and Rodriguez, 2006)

Production method and organization of work typical of the Industrial Revolution, in which each worker formed a separate part of the total set of production of a product, thus increasing the efficiency of the production process. (Lara, 2011)

Faraday's experimental invention, which when turned upside down, became an electric motor. (Silva, 2005)

It is a neologism of the English language, which dates back to 1838. It is defined as: "knowing how to do something easily and efficiently: experience". (Pereira, 2017)

The founder of social psychology, he was a professor at the universities of Cornel and Iowa. (Chiavenato, 2006)

Experiment carried out by the National Research Council in 1927, at the Hawthorne factory of the western Electric Company, located in chicago to evaluate the correlation between lighting and operator efficiency, measured through production. (Chiavenato, 2006).

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