ABSTRACT: Description of the contributions of the main precursors of administration, their different approaches and the theories that revolutionized administrative concepts leading to better organizational results over time.
KEY WORDS: administration, contributions, gurus.
1. Introduction
The word administration comes from the Latin "ad" which means direction / tendency and "minister" which translates to subordination. Which refers to the fulfillment of a function under the command of another. Being the administration, the process that seeks the achievement of objectives with maximum productivity, through people, through the effective coordination of resources within an organization (Stoner et al., 1996; Salas, 2014).
The management concept has been improved according to the new contributions that have been applied over time, since organizations and individuals make adaptive decisions in order to maintain a dynamic balance in the environment and can currently be defined as the process to plan, organize, direct and control the use of resources (human, material, financial, etc.) to achieve business purposes, satisfying the needs of the market (Salas, 2014).
This process involves knowledge of the past, future estimates and periodic feedback related to current activity, looking at the administration from a scientific point of view. So the gurus have influenced the world of administration and in the same way they have contributed so that today it allows many organizations the growth, development, positioning and sustainability in the markets.
2. Development
Administrative history
People have for many centuries forming and reforming organizations. When reviewing the history of mankind, the first examples of the practice of administration can be observed in the construction of the pyramids of Egypt and in the arsenal of Venice. The need arose to have someone who could summon these individuals, plan what had to be done, organize the people and the materials to do it, order and direct the workers, and impose some controls to ensure that everything was done according to what was planned (Robbins & Mary, 2005).
With the passage of time, they realized that it was not only enough to coordinate but that the administration of resources also became essential, which led to great changes that would lead to the formation of structured organizations, thus emerging two important events in the history of administration, leading to the division of labor and the industrial revolution, with which, the formal study of administration began at the beginning of the 20th century (Stoner et al., 1996; UNAM, 2005).
Administrative knowledge
In general, professional administrative knowledge, whose objective is to reach managers, consultants or those who aspire to be, is of a prescriptive nature and of methodological rigor of academic knowledge, by some it is called popular knowledge of management. Having as main representatives the management gurus (consultants, academics or even successful entrepreneurs) (Gantman, 2008).
A guru is defined as a person who can do and produce an effect on others, basing their ideas and different application projects within companies and due to a certain reason they were successful for them. Therefore, they intend to promote and apply them to all organizational cases, spreading them throughout the world as a theory applicable to all situations, both particular and global (Franco & Martínez, 2010).
Administration precursors
Henry R. Towne
He served as president of the Yale and Towne manufacturing company, which helped him later introduce new administrative methods in his own company's plants and innovate piecework wage systems. In the same way, I advocate the exchange of experiences between the managers of different organizations. As of 1870, the systematic application of administrative methods began, giving rise to what is currently known as scientific administration (UNAM, 2005).
Charles Babbage
He considered that the principles of organization are applicable to any field where the coordination of human effort is essential for the achievement of a common goal, he also studied the relationship between work and human beings (number of times the operation was repeated per hour), thus anticipating modern administration and the development of its scientific approach (UNAM, 2005).
Adam Smith
In his publication The Wealth of Nations (1776), using the pin industry for his examples, he made a brilliant argument about the economic advantages that organizations and society could obtain through the division of labor. He also concluded that the division of labor increases productivity by increasing the skill and dexterity of each worker, by saving time that is usually lost when changing activities, and by creating inventions and machinery that save labor (Stoner et al., 1996; Robbins & Coutler, 2005).
Science and Administration
Frederick Winslow Taylor
He is generally recognized as "the father of scientific management." Probably no one else has had a greater impact on the early development of the administration. One of the most famous and highly valuable works because it studies work is the one entitled: Principles of Scientific Management published in 1911, where he analytically narrates his experiments and gives a general overview of the problems located at the beginning of the 20th century within the organization (UNAM, 2005).
Taylor's experiences led him to define clear parameters to improve production efficiency. Taking his philosophy to four basic principles of administration: planning, preparation, control and execution. Taylor argued that the success of these principles required a "total revolution of the mind" of the workers and employers (Stoner et al., 1996).
Taylor based his management system on time studies of the production line. Overall, Taylor achieved steady improvements in productivity, on the order of 200 percent or more. His ideas spread throughout the United States and other countries and motivated others to study and develop scientific management methods (Robbins & Coutler, 2005).
Frank and Lillian Gilbreth
This famous team of husbands also vigorously supported and assisted the development of Taylor's ideas. Lillian took over her consulting business after her husband's death and was widely acclaimed as the "first lady of the administration." The Gilbreths were the first to use films to study body and manual movements, incorporating a classification system of 17 basic manual movements that they called therbligs (Robbins & De Cenzo, 2009).
Henry L. Gantt
In 1901, he formed his own engineering consulting firm and released his bonus salary system. He was the initiator of the graphics to schedule production; the "Gantt Chart" is still used today. In addition, he laid the foundation for two graphing tools, which were invented to help plan, manage, and control complex organizations. In 1908, he presented his work Training the workers in the habits of administration and cooperation (Robbins & Coutler, 2005; UNAM, 2005).
Administration classics
Henri Fayol
He is often remembered as the founder of the classical school of management, because he was the first to systematize managerial behavior. On the basis that accepted management practices follow certain patterns, those can be identified and analyzed. Starting from this basic premise, he drew up the project of a congruent doctrine of the administration, which continues to retain great force to date, under the 14 principles of the Fayol administration (UNAM, 2005; Robbins & De Cenzo, 2009).
Max weber
Thinking that every organization is directed to achieve goals, and composed of thousands of individuals, required a close control of its activities, he developed a theory of bureaucratic administration, he also thought that technical competence was of great importance and that the evaluation of results it should be totally based on merits. Similarly, it sought to improve the results of organizations important to society, making their operations predictable and productive (Robbins & De Cenzo, 2009; Delgado, Soto, & Ibarra, 2015).
Administration and human relations
Robert Owen
Through experiments he devoted his practices to personnel management. Achieving high productivity in factories. Remembered for reducing the suffering of the working class in relation to internal and external working conditions and the total environment (UNAM, 2005; Robbins & De Cenzo, 2009).
Hugo Munsterberg
He defined industrial psychology as the scientific study of people at work to maximize their productivity and adaptation. Recommending psychological tests, learning theory and human behavior to improve employee selection, training methods and worker motivation (Robbins & De Cenzo, 2009).
Mary Parker Follett
It unveiled many new elements, especially in the field of human relations and organizational structure. In this sense, she was the initiator of trends that would develop further in the nascent schools of behavioral science and management. She affirmed that organizations should be based on the ethics of the group, in which each individual combined their talents to strengthen the group and not on individualism (Stoner et al., 1996; Robbins & De Cenzo, 2009).
Chester I. Barnard
According to Bernand, the organization is seen as a cooperative social system and that in order to achieve its goals, individual needs would have to be satisfied. He proposed the theory of acceptance of authority thinking that personal ends could be balanced with those of the organization if managers understood the employees' zone of indifference; that is, what employees would do without questioning the manager's authority (Stoner et al., 1996; Robbins & De Cenzo, 2009).
The behaviorist school
Elton Mayo
Together with his Harvard colleagues, Fritz J. Roethlisberger and William J. Dickson, they conducted the research that eventually became known as “the Hawthorne studies. In these and subsequent experiments, they decided that a complex chain of attitudes affected productivity gains. The researchers came to the conclusion of the norms of the behaviors that groups present in an organization. This phenomenon was later known as the Hawthorne effect (Stoner et al., 1996; Robbins & De Cenzo, 2009).
Abraham Maslow, Douglas McGregor and Frederick Herzberg
Among others, they wrote about the personal improvement of individuals. According to Maslow, the needs that people want to satisfy are shaped like a pyramid. While McGregor presented another angle of the concept of the complex person, two hypotheses which he called "Theory X" and "Theory Y" and finally Herzberg raised the theory of the two factors (Stoner et al., 1996; Delgado et al., 2015).
Administration and contingency systems
Proving that technology is not enough if it is not integrated into the social body, Eric L. Trist, as in the Katz and Kahn model, the researchers recognize that the organization as a system achieves a balance between what it receives from outside and what it receives from it. provides the environment.
James March and Herbert Simon
carried out a work in the late 1950s, where they planted hundreds of proportions about behavior patterns, especially in relation to communication in organizations (Stoner et al., 1996).
Organizational development
Robert R. Blake and Jane S. Mouton
They were representatives of organizational development, in order to improve organizations and the people who work in it. Through the theory and practice of a planned change. Focusing solutions to problems, attitudes and systematic behaviors of the workforce (UNAM, 2005).
Total Quality Management
WA Shewart
He was at the forefront of the quality movement, stating that using statistical and probability techniques makes it easier to understand, detect and control variability. He developed a four-phase control model: plan, do, control, and finally analyze and act.
W. Edwards Deming
He concluded that the need to create a compatible philosophy through statistical methods, summarizing it in 14 steps to achieve a culture of quality in productivity and competitiveness.
Joseph Juran
He studied quality through three steps: planning, operating forces, and improvements.
Kaoru ishikawa
Exponent of the theory of total quality control.
Philip Crosby
Emphasizing prevention in companies, particularly defining that quality is "compliance with requirements" and "zero defects" (UNAM, 2005).
Trends: strategic planning and innovation
Peter F. Drucker
Basing his theories on administration as a serious and systematic discipline, on marketing proposing the client as a functional axis of the company and innovation in companies to obtain success (Soto & Medellin, 2010).
Michael E. Porter
Creator of strategic planning as a tool in which it establishes that the company acts through the following five forces: direct competitors, supply chain, buyers, substitutes and new competitors and emerging investors (Hernandez, 2006).
3. Conclusions
Being the administration the human activity that coordinates the efforts and resources of the organization in order to effectively achieve its institutional and individual objectives. It is important to study the proposals and their practice over time, since it helps us to see the origins, to appreciate what has worked or the opposite, as well as to currently contribute new ideas that can benefit, form an environment dynamic in companies and develop their growth in the global market. Being very clear that these characters have started from theories which have been founded and thus achieving evolution and improvement in administration in organizations.
4. Bibliography
- Delgado, Z., Soto, JG, & Ibarra, JP (2015). The importance of human capital in the different management approaches. Mexico: Universidad de Occidente. Franco, LL, & Martínez, J. (2010). Fashions and gurus: Strategies that have revolutionized the organizational world. Ensayos Magazine (3), 108-121 Gantman, ER (2008). National differences in the generation of academic knowledge in administration. Retrieved August 27, 2015, from http://www.econ.uba.ar/www/institutos/epistemologia/marco_archivos/ponencias/Actas%20XIII/Trabajos%20Episte/Gantman_trabajo.pdfGantman, ER (2008). Scholarly Management Knowledge in the Periphery: Argentina and Brazil in Comparative Perspective (1970-2005). Brazilian Administration Review, 115-135 Hernandez, S. (2006). Strategic planning. In Introduction to Administration (pp.308-309). Mexico: McGraw-Hill. Pereda, C., & de Prada, M. Á. (2015). Participatory action research and dialectical perspective. Arxius, 9-11 Robbins, SP, & Coutler, M. (2005). Administration history. In Administration (pages 23-42). Mexico: Prentice-Hall. Robbins, SP, & De Cenzo, DA (2009). Management fundamentals: essential concepts and applications (3rd ed.). Mexico: Prentice Hall.Salas, A. (2014). Fundamentals of the Administration. Retrieved August 27, 2015, from http://www.uv.mx/personal/alsalas/files/2014/09/INTRODUCCION-A-LA-ADMINISTRACION.pdf Soto, M., & Medellin, EA (2010). Innovation and the innovative entrepreneur at Drucker. SINNCO (15), 19. Stoner, JA, Freeman, E., & Gilbert Jr, DR (1996). Administration (6th ed.). Mexico: Prentice Hall. UNAM. (2005). Notes for the subject:Administration I. Mexico: FCA.
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Management: Technique of direction and management of companies where its concrete manifestations range from routine administrative practices in organizations to specialized academic literature (Gantman, 2008).
