Administrative thinking, like humanity, has evolved from prehistory and cavemen to modern history, trips to the moon, computers, and the internet.
In administration, as in politics or poetry, there have been different currents or approaches, that is why we know several conceptions about the most successful way in which an organization should be administered.
The history of these administrative trends dates back to the Chinese empire 500 years BC. It would be Confucius who laid the foundations of the Chinese administration. After the Chinese came the Egyptians with an organized administrative system in agriculture, herding, and commerce, which Weber called a "bureaucrat." Later on, the Romans developed an excellent system in agriculture, mining and commerce in addition to war, which led them to prosperity for several centuries, the spirit of administrative order that the Roman Empire had made it possible, to the pair of wars and conquests, the organization of institutions in a satisfactory way. These first experiences of administrative systems constitute what we could call prehistory of administrative thought.
In the European Middle Ages a unique political system developed: feudalism. The feudal lord lived in his castle, administered justice, led the police, collected taxes, and minted money. This is, in a certain way, the appearance of decentralization since there were monarchies that ruled the territories, but it was the feudal lords who constituted small "states" and maintained the monarchies. Also at this time, the Catholic Church flourished and was consolidated. The study of your organization must interest those who are starting in administrative disciplines, to know the importance of indoctrination in administration for the achievement of a goal.
Management is the process of creating, designing, and maintaining an environment in which people efficiently achieve selected goals.
After the feudalist organization comes the period of revolutions, including the Industrial Revolution and with it also forms of administration that are not very orthodox were born.
From the XIX century there are several schools, the scientific administration, the behavior, the empirical,… Here is a graph that illustrates the evolution of organizational theory:
Evolution of the theories of the organization. Source: Rivas Tovar, Luis Arturo. Evolution of organization theory, 2009
Without a doubt, the great pioneers of modern managerial thought are Frederick Taylor and Henry Fayol, fathers of management as science.
Taylor's proposal has three fundamental elements:
- Study of work (organization and programming of work) "development of a science" and "equitable distribution of work". Technical selection and training of the worker. “Selection and scientific development of the worker.” Control (by the administrators) of the work (carried out by the worker). "Cordial cooperation between administration and workers"
Fayol enacted several key elements:
- Grouping of the set of activities carried out by the organization. "Operations carried out by companies". Definition of the functions that an administrator must carry out. "Elements of administration". Formulation of criteria that should guide administrative activity. "General administration guidelines".
The main contribution of these two pioneers was to demonstrate that scientific management is not a group of efficiency or incentive techniques but a philosophy by virtue of which management recognizes that its objective is to scientifically seek the best working methods.
After Taylor and Fayol, Gantt and his flowcharts appear that allow studying complete operations and not just a special activity. In addition, Frank and Lilian Gilbreth who advanced the foundations of the modern study of work.
Later it is Max Weber who promulgates bureaucracy as the most effective method of managing organizations. The bureaucracy is an "ideal type" of organization delimited by a structure of legal domination that is exercised through an administrative framework applicable to large organizations of both the state and the private sector.
Then Elton Mayo appears, who is part of the school of human behavior or behaviorism. His studies sought to analyze the effects that physical conditions exerted on workers and on production. The most important result of their analyzes is that psychosocial factors, such as recognition and awareness of belonging to a group, are more important for the level of production than physical working conditions and salary incentives.
Also, from the behaviorist school, Lewin proposed work groups as a key factor to improve productivity.
Another exponent of this school is Maslow who observed that motivation is very important to improve the productivity of individuals, who always move in search of satisfying needs that are hierarchical.
One more behaviorist is Herzberg, who stated that the way to motivate the employee should be through task enrichment, assigning tasks that challenge employees to assume greater responsibility.
Another school is the Japanese, the just in time, kaizen, Z theory and Kanban are some of his contributions. One of the most important representatives of this school is Ouchi who proposed that there is no place in organizations for self-centeredness or for overly sensitive individuals (the general interest takes precedence over the individual) and that intimacy and trust are the cornerstones of the organizational culture inside and outside the scope that surrounds the company.
Within the American school there are representatives such as McGregor and Drucker.
The first, Douglas McGregor, promoted theory Y as a response to traditional management or theory X, this theory states that motivation, the potential for development, the ability to assume responsibility, the willingness to direct behavior towards organizational goals, is they are all present in people. The administration does not place them there. It is the responsibility of the administration to make it possible for individuals to recognize and develop these human characteristics for themselves.
The second, Peter F. Drucker, one of the greatest authors of management science of all time, advocated management by objectives, a generalized response in the business environment to solve in a participatory way the problem of setting objectives and a procedure for the correlation and reformulation of the strategy.
Finally, strategic planning appears, which basically consists of the process of developing and maintaining an adequate strategy between goals and capacities of an organization and the changes in its market opportunities. Seeking, in this way, to achieve a sustainable competitive advantage in the long term. To establish the strategy to follow, you must know in depth, not only the organization inside (strategy from the inside out), but the environment in which it operates (from the outside in), its weaknesses and strengths, its opportunities and threats. In addition to studying the strategies of competitors in the area and the results they have obtained.
Administration functions: * Planning * Organization * Integration of personnel * Direction * Control
This article is just a snapshot of managerial theories and thoughts as there are many more managerial practices including process reengineering, value-based management, organizational crews, etc., etc., etc. and although several of them have been temporary, they have contributed elements to enrich administrative theory.
Times have changed, markets and companies have changed, and as in Darwin's theory of the evolution of species, only the strongest will survive and the strongest companies will be those that develop flexible strategies (that allow them to adapt to strong changes technological, economic and market) of short and long term to create and maintain competitive advantages that allow them to succeed in the market.
Here is a video course through which you can learn more about the evolution of organization theory and the different schools of administrative thought. (20 videos, 1 hour and 43 minutes, Educatina.com)
