Administration through time and the development of administrative theories

This document aims to provide a clear idea of the most widely used management concepts, their characteristics and the theories on which they are based. The reader will have the ability to have a global idea of what we know as organizations and how with the correct management of their resources they can achieve success.

There will be a brief tour of the stages that the administration has gone through from its origins in prehistory to the present day.

It is necessary to clarify that administration is an activity that is carried out by each individual without distinction of the degree of knowledge they possess, the variant exists in the type of results obtained by each one of them.

Throughout the years, different cultures were discovering, adapting and applying different perceptions of administration, until reaching the beginning of the 20th century where the concepts of scientific administration really began to be coined, great men like Taylor, Fayol, Mayo, Gantt, Weber made tremendous contributions and laid the groundwork for this insight.

DEFINITIONS

Here are some definitions that the authors use as administration

"Administration is to foresee, organize, command, coordinate and control" (H Fayol, 1916)

"Administration is the process of planning, organizing, directing and controlling the use of resources to achieve organizational objectives." (Chiavenato, 2004)

"Administration is the use of authority to organize, direct and control responsible subordinates (and consequently, the groups that command), so that all services provided are duly coordinated in achieving the end of the company ”(F. Tannenbaum)

"Administration is the process of structuring and using sets of resources oriented towards achieving goals, to carry out tasks in an organizational environment." (Hitt, 2006)

"Administration is the organization, planning, direction and control of human and other resources, to efficiently and effectively achieve the goals of the organization" (Jones and George, 2010)

THE ADMINISTRATION AND ITS DEVELOPMENT OVER TIME

Administration is an activity inherent to humanity, so we can identify man as a being that develops in a society where each of the members have different activities assigned to obtain some benefit in common.

In the year 10,000 BC, with the end of nomadism, the primitive human being used rudimentary techniques and tools for the development of their activities in order to meet the basic needs whose initial objective was survival, the "tribes" or groups began having a source of authority or leader whom they venerated, this was "the elder" because he possessed skills and wisdom that continued to keep him alive.

In the year 4000 BC the Egyptian culture practiced elementary techniques of administration, administrative thinking is found in Egyptian literature as advice from the father to his son, understanding concepts such as authority and responsibility, they recognized the importance of the specialization of each of the individuals in the organization in addition to having an inventory system.

In the year 2000 BC, in ancient Babylon, the implementation of laws began to develop commercial activities, rentals, salaried jobs, hierarchy of society and activities of daily life through the application of the Code of Hammurabi

In the year 1100 to 500 BC, Chinese culture demonstrates knowledge based on organized behavior, in writings such as those of Mencius and Chow making a detailed description of all the activities of the emperor's servants and the powers that the prime minister had regarding the forms of government, the so-called "council board" is formed, which would be consulted by the emperor in each important decision.

In 500 BC the Greek society introduced science and education to the scientific thinking of management, recognized the principle that maximum production is achieved through uniform and repetitive methods, Plato establishes the theory of specialization.

In 200 BC the Romans developed manufacturing systems as a means of specialized work, the successive delegation of authority to control the borders of the Roman Empire was launched.

Middle Ages feudalism was formed by developing landowners or land tenants who owned servitude in exchange for protection, large-scale commerce was developed, it is important to mention that at the end of this period, guilds (artisans of the same trade) were formed.

At the end of 1400 in Venice the concepts of cost and inventory accounting were developed, later the theories of source of authority and principles of automation were integrated by the hand of Sir James Stuart

In the Industrial Revolution, due to the existence of inhuman exploitation, excessive hours and dangerous work, union movements originated, which caused a change in the productive system, the birth of new organizations and thus the development of new theories of modern administration.

In a period between 1832 and 1886, organizational art was made known by authors such as Babbaje and McCallun, but it was not until the 20th century that concepts such as schools, theories, and management trends were finally developed.

ADMINISTRATIVE THEORIES AND THEIR APPEARANCE IN HISTORY

SCIENTIFIC THEORY

The beginning of scientific theory was in the early 1900s, the main objective was to have a task-directed approach, its greatest exponent was Frederick Winslow Taylor, highlighting the participation of Henrry Gantt, Harrington Emerson and Frank Gilbreth, the main characteristic of This theory was the observation of production, study of procedures, movements used, distribution of equipment and performance of the workshops. For the first time it is recognized that the goal is to obtain the best results by applying scientific methods, the main principles of this school are:

Principle of approach

Preparation / planning principle

Control principle

Execution principle

One of the main contributions was to affirm that scientific administration is a philosophy, because it manages to create scientific bases for work methods, under this concept it refers to the worker as an individual of production creating a specialization in search of increasing efficiency, without taking into account the role of each one in the social sphere

CLASSIC THEORY

The beginning of classical theory was in 1916, its greatest exponent was Henry Fayol, including the participation of Oliver Sheldon, James D. Mooney, the main objective was to increase the efficiency in organizations, through their departments and their relationships with each other, having as references:

Authority and Responsibility Centralization Division of work Hierarchy Unit of direction Unit of command

The managerial behavior is systematized to create more defined concepts of authority and hierarchy divided into six groups of functions:

Commercial Financial Security Technical Accounting Administrative

Establishing fourteen basic principles: division of labor, authority, discipline, unity of direction, unity of command, subordination of the individual good to the common, remuneration, centralization, hierarchy, order, equity, staff stability, initiative and team spirit.

Fayol insisted that the administration should have a sense of unity, having the perspective that the organization is a whole.

THEORY OF HUMAN RELATIONS

The theory of human relations appears in 1932, its main exponent was George Elton Mayo, ensuring that labor productivity is the result of the physical and organizational conditions of the institution, as well as the labor relations and motivation of each individual, thus being born the concept of human relations.

Mayo argued that the individual was more productive if he had recognition or a sense of belonging to a group, thus the concept of social man, individual motivation, group sociology, leadership, group communication was born.

At this stage, Maslow's pyramid is made up of five levels for personal needs, grouping them as follows:

Physiological needs Of security Of social acceptance Of self-esteem Of self-realization

The most criticized aspect of this theory is that the reaction of workers is not always positive when a non-economic stimulus is applied to them.

BUREAUCRATIC THEORY

It takes place in the 40's, its main exponent was Max Weber, who argued that bureaucracy is the efficient organization par excellence, because it explains in minute detail how things should be done, the main characteristics are:

Legal nature of rules and regulations Formal nature of communications Rational nature and division of labor Impersonality of relationships Hierarchy of authority Routines and standardized procedures Technical competence and meritocracy Specialization of the administration Professionalization of the participants Complete forecast of the operation

NEOCLASSIC THEORY

The Neoclassical theory has its beginnings in the decade of the 50's within its main characteristics is the reaffirmation of the classical theories, emphasizing the practice of administration, objectives and organizational results, the call is obtained: administration by objectives (APO).

This theory is based on the principles of formal organization which are:

Division of labor Specialization Hierarchy Administrative breadth

These principles resulted in higher productivity, higher efficiency, and lower costs. The administrative tasks were divided into 3 levels:

Institutional level Intermediate level Operational level

STRUCTURALIST THEORY

This theory was born in the 1950s with Weber and Etzioni as its main exponents due to the need to integrate classical theory and the theory of human relations, focusing on the structure of organizations and their relationship with others.

In this period, the concept of organizations as an open system in constant interaction with the external environment was born.

Etzioni refers to two types of organization models:

Survival Models Efficiency Models

THEORY OF SYSTEMS

It has its origin in the 50's, one of the main exponents was Ludwig Von Bertalanffy, in this theory the organization is conceived as an open system, made up of subsystems interacting with each other, in an environment where elements of input to be transformed into products through a certain process

It does not seek to solve problems, if not to produce theories, it is based on three basic principles:

Systems exist within systems Systems are open, carrying out an infinite exchange process with the environment The functions of a system depend on its structure

The elements that it has are: Input or input, output or product, processing or transformer, environment, the concept of Synergy is used: when the total result is greater than the sum of the parts

ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT THEORY

This theory is conceived in the 60's because the organizational structures cannot adapt to an increasingly changing environment, it is also called the school of planned organizational change, it is based on the theory of behavior but with an approach more administrative. The basic idea is that the organization and the social system evolve in the same way, at the same planned rate, its stages are:

Decision and diagnosis Data collection Organizational diagnosis Intervention process

This theory involves and encourages the participation of the leaders of the organization and its members to collaborate in the administration and processes as part of their culture

This theory defends that organizational development can be identified in 3 types: