Evolution Of Management- Classical management Theory

The classical school of management theories were developed during the Industrial Revolution of the mid- to late- 1800s and early 1900s. They are largely concerned with improving efficiency and productivity.

The main classical management theories include:

• Fayol's five functions of management
• Taylor - Scientific Management 

Taylor's work is typical of the Classical school and emphasises the idea that there is one "best way" of doing a job and generally it is the role of management to determine the optimal solution and then tell staff what to do. If a problem of  motivation arises then workers will usually respond to being paid more, perhaps through productivity bonusses

In the context of managing staff behaviour, Taylor believed that by analysing work in a scientific manner, it was possible to find the one best way to perform a task.

He felt that by organising work in the most efficient way, the organisation's productivity would be increased, allowing it to reward employees with additional remuneration, which Taylor argued was employee's only motivation

To accomplish this, Taylor's scientific management consisted of four key principles:

• Tasks should be analysed in detail to determine the most efficient methods to use - i.e. they should be planned to maximise efficiency.
• Staff members should be scientifically managed. Only the most suitable people should be chosen, trained and developed for each job.
• Managers should make all key decisions and provide detailed instructions for workers to follow in order to maximise efficiency.
• Work was to be divided between managers and workers, with close co-operation between the two groups to increase efficiency.

·         Scientific management, also called Taylorism, was a theory of management that analyzed and synthesized workflows. Its main objective was improving economic efficiency, especially labor productivity. It was one of the earliest attempts to apply science to the engineering of processes and to management. Its development began with Frederick Winslow Taylor in the 1880s and 1890s within the manufacturing industries. Its peak of influence came in the 1910s; by the 1920s, it was still influential but had begun an era of competition and syncretism with opposing or complementary ideas.

·         Although scientific management as a distinct theory or school of thought was obsolete by the 1930s, most of its themes are still important parts of industrial engineeringand management today. These include analysis; synthesis; logic; rationality; empiricism; work ethic; efficiency and elimination of waste; standardization of best practices; disdain for tradition preserved merely for its own sake or to protect the social status of particular workers with particular skill sets; the transformation of craft production into mass production; and knowledge transfer between workers and from workers into tools, processes, and documentation.

·         Scientific management's application was contingent on a high level of managerial control over employee work practices. This necessitated a higher ratio of managerial workers to laborers than previous management methods. The great difficulty in accurately differentiating any such intelligent, detail-oriented management from mere misguided management also caused interpersonal friction between workers and managers.

·         Fayol argued that manegement may be split into five broad areas: forecasting and planning, organisation, command, co-ordination and control.

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