Chapter 5

Alternative Theories of Organizational

Behavior: Classic Models &
Ideological Sources of Value

Public Administration
Chapter outline
 Introduction
 The classical school of organizational theories
 Adam smith; Fredrick Taylor; Harrington Emerson;
Henri Fayol; Max Weber; Leonard White
 THE Human Relations School theories
 Mary Parker Follett; Chester Bernard; Elton Mayo;
Abraham Maslow; Douglas McGregor; Chris
Argyris; Rensis Likert
 The Neoclassical School theories
 Luther Gulick; Herbert Simon; Phillip Selznick;
Dwight Waldo; Catheryn Seckler-Hudson
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Outline …

 The Systems School theories

 Norbert Weiner; Daivid Easton; Daniel Katz &
Robert Kahn; William Ouchi & Clyde Mckee; Peter
Senge
 The New Public Management theories
 Jonathan Boston et al; Barzelay, Osborn,
Gaebler, & Plastrik;

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Introduction – organization theory

 An Org is a group of individuals working

together to achieve common goals &
structured into a division of labor to better
pursue those goals

 Organization theory is a set of propositions

about organization used to explain how
people & groups behave within varied
structures

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organization theory …

 Organizational development: an approach

that analyzes organizational problems &
solutions

 Public administrators challenge: complying

with the directions of the elected leaders,
maintaining work integrity, & serving the
public

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Schools of organization theories
 Each school accept certain values & shared
assumptions about organizations examples
 Classical school respect law, citizens & values
 Public management emphasize is customer
orientation
 Theories have different treatments for the
tension between democracy and bureaucracy
 Democracy promotes the values of freedom,
individual tights, & responsiveness
 Bureaucracy emphasize order, group cohesion
toward common purpose, & efficiency
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The classical school theories
 They laid the foundations; examining military orgs &
the early structures of the industrial revolution
 Describing organizations with
 hierarchical structure,
 chains of command,
 formal system of authority
 bureaucratic behavior …etc
 Their Concepts came from mechanical engineering;
industrial engineering; and economics
 They depict organizations as machine-like
 Efficiency is the main cardinal value of these theories

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Classicals …

 They assume a single best way to structure an

organization
 Emphasize division of labor; rational decision
making
 Describing an idea type of the organization
 Main theorists: Adam smith; Fredrick Taylor;
Henri Fayol; Max Weber;
Leonard White; & Harrington Emerson

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The classical … theorists
 Adam Smith: founder of economics &
capitalism
 The factory system; industrial orgs; force
multipliers of modern orgs –ex: individuals work
together for greater total effect; use technology for
productivity.
 Taylor: the scientific management movement
 the machine-like org; time & motion studies; rules
& structure of work; ignore customers & workers.
 Four values: efficiency, rationality, productivity,
profit
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 The classical … theorists …

 Fayol: 1st comprehensive theory; or fundamentals

 Mgt: organization; planning; coordination; control
 Division of work; authority & responsibility; centralization;
unity of interest & direction of the organization; …etc.
 Max Weber: bureaucracy theory - the “ideal type”
org- hierarchy of authority; impersonality; written
rules; promotion based on achievement;
specialized division of labor; efficiency.

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The classical school & PA principles

 Must separate elected leaders from org staff

 Representativeness & responsiveness
from efficiency & effectiveness
 Insulate government business from politics
 PA could be a design science
 PA should be based on the unity of command

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The Human Relations School

 Opposed the authoritarian; lack of creativity &

less focus on human being of the classicals
 Viewed workers having many noneconomic
needs that influence productivity
 Elton Mayo: founder of the school; Hawthorne
studies- psychological & social effects on work

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HR …
 Chester Bernard: formal & informal parts of the org;
equilibrium between people’s motives and goals of org;
subordinates as the ultimate source of authority in org
whether they reject or accept or in indifference zone for
orders
 Abraham Maslow: the hierarchy of needs
 Douglas McGregor: theory X & theory Y (negative
then positive assumptions about motivations in work)
 Others such as Chris Argyris: & Rensis Likert:

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The Neoclassical School
 Update the classical using behavioral work
 Emphasize changes in decision making rules
 Luther Gulick: Mgt activities; separation of
administration from politics
 Herbert Simon: challenged the classicals by the
administrative behavior model of decision
making showing its: bounded rationality
aspects; lack of information; tendency to
satisfycing.
 Simon differentiated between programmed &
un-programmed decisions…etc.
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Neoclassicals …
 Phillip Selznick: the clash between individual
goals and organizational goals
 Dwight Waldo: showed how democracy &
bureaucracy differ and complete each other;
 Bureaucratic values such as productivity &
efficiency; personal & national security may
contradict with democracy values
 bureaucracy may have excessive formalism;
impersonality record keeping, procedures …
 He called for post-bureaucracy society
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The Systems School
 Interactive & interrelated set of elements: inputs;
processes; outputs; environment; feedback.
 Unlike the classical view, this school shows the
complex, dynamic, multidimensional view of the org.
 Orgs dynamically seeking shifting states of
equilibrium to & integral parts of their environment
 Feedback processes shows the reform efforts of orgs
 Orgs should be less hierarchical & rigid as flexibility is
a core value in systems theory
 in this school politics & bureaucracy or policy making
and administration cannot be separated

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Systems school

 Norbert Weiner: introduced the term Cybernatics

 org model as an adaptive system
 Also the self regulation concept: biological, social, or
tech systems can identify problems then react & get
feedback to adjust themselves automatically.
 A system maybe closed-system: not affected by the
environment, emphasizes stability & predictability, or
 open: complex interdependent internally & externally-
its values: change; spontaneity; & self-regulation

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Systems …

 David Easton: used systems in political analysis

 Daniel Katz & Robert Kahn: emphasize group
dynamics & org development in the systems theory
 William Ouchi & Clyde Mckee; theory Z- i.e.
productivity is determined by social & managerial
org & improved by communication & feedback &
involvement in self-managed work teams (ex TQM)
 Peter Senge: the learning org (using TQM,
reengineering, continuous improvement …etc.)
Org learning develop opportunities & growth

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The New Public Management theories
 From admin to entrepreneurial bureaucracy
(Reform driven: PA as in private sector)
 Using the public choice model- seeing policy
decisions as being market driven
 Jonathan Boston et al.: principles of reinventing
government movement as integral to this school
 Barzelay, et al.: 5 ideas or values for NPM-
competition, privatization, decentralization,
innovation, & empowerment. & introduced for
each idea series of reform recommendations
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NPM inconsistencies
 Encourage competition but oppose duplicating
government units to prevent competition
 Attention to profit but preventing government
from many profit making businesses
 Decentralization contradict with rationalizing
government decisions
 Lack of policy neutrality. Dependency on
political agenda affect how PA may work

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NPM …

 Empowerment contradict with tight control &

penalties applied for protecting public assets
 Sharing power contradict with rational central
decision making in PA

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