Chapter 6
The Evolution of
Management and
Organization Theory
摘自Shafritz, J. & E. Russell (2009).
Introducing Public Administration,
6th ed. NY: Pearson-Longman. [SR]
1. The Origins of Public Management
1.1 The Continuing Influence of Ancient Rome
1.2 The Military Heritage of Public
Administration
2. The Evolution of Management Principles
2.1 Comparing Military and Civilian Principles
2.2 The Principles Approach
3. What Is Organization Theory?
3.1 Classical Organization Theory
3.2 Adam Smith and the Pin Factory
4. The Origins of Scientific Management
4.1 The Staff Concept
4.2 The Influence of Frederick W. Taylor
4.3 Fayol’s General Theory of Management
5. The Period of Orthodoxy
5.1 Paul Appleby’s Polemic
5.2 Luther Gulick’s POSDCORB
6. The Many Meanings of Bureaucracy
6.1 All Government Offices
6.2 All Public Officials
6.3 A General Invective
6.4 Max Weber’s Structural Arrangements
7. Neoclassical Organization Theory
7.1 Herbert A. Simon’s Influence
7.2 The Impact of Sociology
8. “Modern” Structural Organization Theory
8.1 Basic Assumptions
8.2 Mechanistic and Organic Systems
9. Systems Theory
9.1 Cybernetics
9.2 The Learning Organization
9.3 Complex Adaptive Systems
1. The Origins of Public Management
„
Civilization and administration have always
gone hand in hand. Since ancient times, a
city was defined by the walls created for its
defense. Even today many municipalities will
award someone a key to the city in symbolic
remembrance of when the only way into a
city was through a locked gate in the wall.
(p.225)
„
Thus the profession of management began
and developed as the profession of arms. To
the extent that the history of the world is the
history of warfare, then it is also the history of
public administration – because war at the
state level is quite literally not possible
without an effective system of public
administration behind it. (p.226)
„
Only gradually did these mob managers
develop the organizational skills to command
large armies and rule large areas. These
early martial skills constitute the most basic
elements of all administrative processes.
Hierarchy, line and staff personnel, logistics,
and communications were all highly
developed by ancient armies. (p.226)
1.1 The Continuing Influence of
Ancient Rome
„
When Governor Bill Clinton of Arkansas
announced he would be running in the 1992
presidential race, the very legitimacy of his
candidacy was called into question because
he not only lacked military experience but
conspicuously sought to avoid it during the
Vietnam War. (p.228)
„
While many who opposed the war thought
that Clinton’s legal avoidance of the draft was
a more honorable course of action than
serving in this unpopular war, the depth of
reaction to his lack of prior military service
continued to make it difficult for him to
function as commander in chief well into his
presidency. (p.228)
2. The Evolution of Management
Principles
„
Authoritarian or traditional management is the
classic model of military governance applied
to civilian purposes. Managers under an
authoritarian doctrine value order, precision,
consistency, and obedience. To them, the
power that flows from structure is supreme.
Relationships are hierarchical, based on
dominance and dependence. (p.230)
„
While there are many versions of the
principles of war that reflect local conditions,
they all contain the same basic elements.
Those elements having civilian applications
have been incorporated into principles of
management. Thus concepts once militarysuch as span of control and unity of
command-are now thoroughly civilian as well.
(p.230)
2.1 Comparing Military and Civilian
Principles
„
1.
2.
There are a large number of formulations of
the principles of management from which to
choose.
Policy should be defined and imparted to
those who are responsible for its
achievement.
Work should be subdivided, systematically
planned, and programmed. (p.231)
3.
4.
7.
8.
9.
Tasks and responsibilities should
specifically assigned and understood.
Appropriate methods and procedures
should be developed and utilized by those
responsible for policy achievement. (p.231)
Adequate structural relationships through
which to operate should be established.
Effective and qualified leadership should
head each organization and each
subdivision of the organization.
Unity of command and purpose should
permeate the organization. (p.232)
„
„
It should be never assumed that the
principles of management are immutable
laws to be applied automatically. (p.231)
Herbert Simon gained much of his early
reputation by attacking the principles
approach in his 1946 article condescendingly
titled “The Proverbs of Administration.” (p.232)
2.2 The Principles Approach
„
The principles approach to management,
whether of the civilian or military variety, was a
pivotal development in the advancement of
management as a profession. Why? Because it
seeks to make a science out of what was once
considered only art. (p.233)
3. What Is Organization Theory?
„
An “organization” is a group of people who
jointly work to achieve at least one common
goal. A “theory” is a proposition or set of
propositions that seek to explain or predict
something. The something in the case of
organization theory is how groups and
individuals behave in differing organizational
arrangements. This is critically important
information for any manager or leader. (p.234)
„
Organization theory was always there in the
authoritarian model offered by the military.
While many of its premises were understood
by the ancients, it did not coalesce as a selfconscious field of knowledge until society
found a practical use for it – to help manage
the ever-burgeoning national (as opposed to
local) industries and institutions brought
about by the industrial revolution. (p.234)
3.1 Classical Organization Theory
„
Classical organization theory, as its name
implies, was the first theory of its kind, is
considered traditional, and continues to be the
base on which other schools of organization
theory have been built. Its basic tenets and
assumptions, however, which were rooted in
the industrial revolution of the 1700s and the
professions of mechanical engineering,
industrial engineering, and economics, have
never changed. (p.235)
(Case1:政府再造 大有為變小而能)
(Case2:料敵從寬 防疫敗給官僚)
„
They were only expanded upon, refined, and
made more sophisticated. Thus an
understanding of classical organization
theory is essential not only because of its
historical interest but also, more importantly,
because subsequent analyses and theories
presume a knowledge of it. (p.235)
„
1.
2.
3.
4.
The fundamental tenets of organization
theory can be summarized as follows:
Organizations exist to accomplish
production-related and economic goals.
There is one best way to organize for
production, and that way can be found
through systematic, scientific inquiry.
Production is maximized through
specialization and division of labor.
People and organizations act in accordance
with rational economic principles. (p.236)
„
The evolution of any theory must be viewed
in context. The beliefs of early management
theorists about how organizations worked or
should work were a direct reflection of the
societal values of their times. (p.236)
3.2 Adam Smith and the Pin Factory
„
Centralization of equipment and labor in
factories, division of specialized labor,
management of specialization, and economic
paybacks on factory equipment all were
concerns identified by the Scottish economist
Adam Smith (1723-1790) in his work An
Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the
Wealth of Nations. (p.236)
„
All formal organizations, whether Smith’s
eighteenth-century factory or the most
sophisticated modern corporation, are force
multipliers in the sense that they allowed the
combined individual efforts to be far greater
than the sum of their parts. (p.237)
4. The Origins of Scientific Management
4.1 The Staff Concept
„
„
Individual officers and supervisors,
competent enough under stable hierarchy,
became less competent under revolutionary
conditions.
This traditional use of staff was followed by
the staff principle (concept), which created a
specific unit in the larger organization whose
primary responsibility was to think and plan,
to ponder over innovations and plan for their
implementation. (p.239)
„
„
„
Beginning with the industrial revolution, the
staff concept has made ever-increasing
inroads into the public/private sector.(p.239)
The general staff concept, modified to reflect
local conditions, was increasingly adopted by
burgeoning industrial and governmental
organizations. (p.240)
Premised upon the notion that there was “one
best way” of accomplishing any given task,
Taylor’s scientific management sought to
increase output by using special staff to
discover the most efficient production methods.
4.2 The Influence of Frederick W. Taylor
„
„
Scientific management emerged as a
national movement in the United States
during a series of events in 1910. Some
eastern railroads filed for increased freight
rates with the Interstate Commerce
Commission. (p.240,241)
Taylor's greatest public sector popularity
came in 1912 after he presented his ideas to
a Special Committee of the House of
Representatives to Investigate the Taylor and
Other Systems of Shop Management.
(p.241,242)
„
1.
2.
Taylor’s comprehensive statement of
scientific management principles was
focused on what he called the “duties of
management”:
Replacing traditional, rule-of-thumb
methods of work accomplishment with
systematic, more scientific methods of
measuring and managing individual work
elements
The scientific study of the selection and
sequential development of workers to
ensure optimal placement of workers into
work roles (p.242)
3.
4.
Obtaining the cooperation of workers to
ensure full application of scientific principles
Establishing logical divisions within work roles
and responsibilities between workers and
management
„
Taylor’s duties seem so obvious today, but
they were revolutionary in 1912. Taylor
himself even insisted in his Principles of
Scientific Management that “scientific
management does not necessarily involve any
great invention, nor the discovery of new or
startling facts.” Nevertheless, it did “involve a
certain combination of elements which have
not existed in the past, namely, old knowledge
so collected, analyzed, grouped and classified
into laws and rules that it constitutes a
science.” (p.243)
4.3 Fayol’s General Theory of Management
„
Fayol believed that his concept of management
was universally applicable to every type of
organization. While he had six principles (1916 in
French) - (1) technical (production of goods); (2)
commercial (buying, selling, and exchange
activities); (3) financial (raising and using capital);
(4) security (protection of property and people); (5)
accounting; and (6) managerial (coordination,
control, organization, planning, and command of
people) - Fayol’s primary interest and emphasis
was on his final principle: managerial. (p.245)
5. The Period of Orthodoxy
„
It is hardly possible to exaggerate the
influence that scientific management has had
and continues to have on the intellectual
development of public administration. Those
who have traced the historical evolution of
public administration, such as Dwight Waldo,
Vincent Ostrom, Nicholas Henry, and Howard
McCurdy, would describe the pattern of
development within public administration
between the world wars as a “period of
orthodoxy.” (p.245)
„
The tenets of this orthodox ideology held that
the work of government could be neatly
divided into decision making and execution
(the politics-administration dichotomy of
Woodrow Wilson) and that administration
was a science with discoverable principles
(scientific management). This dichotomy,
which played such an important part in the
historical development of public
administration, would hardly have been
possible if scientific management had not
evolved when it did. (p.245)
„
The experience of those years called into
question much of what was then the
conventional wisdom of public administration.
The politics-administration dichotomy of the
progressive reform movement (p.23) lost its
viability amid the New Deal and the war effort
because it was increasingly seen that it
simply was not possible to take value-free
processes of business and apply them to
government. Government, in spite of the best
efforts of many reformers, was not a business
and was not value-free. (p.246)
5.1 Paul Appleby’s Polemic
„
„
He held that it was a myth that politics was
separate and could somehow be taken out of
administration. This was good … because this
political involvement in administration acted as
a check on the arbitrary exercise of
bureaucratic power. (p.246)
“Government is different because government
is politics.” (p.246)
5.2 Luther Gulick’s POSDCORB
„
The second tenet of the interwar ”orthodoxy,”
that administration was a science with
discoverable principles, has never left us. The
influence of scientific management continue to
be pervasive. Taylor’s scientific management
sought to increase output by discovering the
fastest, most efficient, and least-fatiguing
production methods. The job of the scientific
manager, once the “one best way” was found,
was to impose this procedure upon his or her
organization. (p.246)
(Case1:政府再造 大有為變小而能)
„
Luther Gulick’s “Notes on the Theory of
Organization” is without doubt the bestknown statement of this “principles” approach
to managing organizations. In 1937, he and
Lyndall Urwick edited a collection entitled
Papers on the Science of Administration.
Originally this was intended to be a staff
report for the Brown-low Committee (see
Chapter 3). (p.247)
6. The Many Things of Bureaucracy
„
„
„
„
„
„
All government offices (p.248)
All public officials (p.248)
A general invective (p.249)
Max Weber’s structural arrangements –
the characteristics of the “ideal type” of
bureaucracy (pp.249-250)
Anthony Downs’ additional points (p.250)
Bureaucracy in the public and private sectors
(p.251)
7. Neoclassical Organization Theory
„
There is no precise definition for neoclassical in
the context of organization theory. The general
connotation is that of a theoretical perspective
that revises and/or is critical of classical
organization theory-particularly for minimizing
issues related to the humanness of
organizational members, coordination needs
among administrative units, internal-external
organizational relations, and organizational
decision processes. (p.251)
(Case1:政府再造 大有為變小而能)
(Case2:料敵從寬 防疫敗給官僚)
„
The major writers of the classical school did
their most significant work before World War
II. The neoclassical writers gained their
reputations as organization theorists by
attacking the classical writers after the end of
the war. They sought to “save” classical
theory by introducing modifications based on
research findings in the behavioral sciences.
(p.251)
„
The neoclassical school was important first
because it initiated the theoretical movement
away from the oversimplistic mechanistic
views of the classical school. The
neoclassicists challenged some of the basic
tenets of the classical school head on-and
they did so when the classical school was the
only school. Organization theory and
classical organization theory were effectively
synonymous. (p.251)
„
Second, in the process of challenging the
classical school, the neoclassicalists raised
issues and initiated theories that became
central to the foundations of most of the
schools or approaches to organization theory
that have followed. Thus the neoclassical
school was a critically important forerunner to
the “power and politics” and the
“organizational culture” perspective
discussed in Chapter 2 and the “systems
theory” school discussed later in this chapter.
(p.251)
7.1 Herbert A. Simon’s Influence
„
Simon was the most influential of the
neoclassical organization theorist. He was the
first to seriously challenge the principles
approach. Simon also a firm believer that
decision making should be the focus of a new
“administrative science.” He wrote that
organization theory is, in fact, the theory of
the bounded rationality of human beings who
satisfice because they do not have the
intellectual capacity to maximize. (p.251)
„
„
He wrote … the theory of bounded rationality
of human beings who satisfice because they
do not have the intellectual capacity to
maximize. (p.252)
He was also the first analyst to draw a
distinction between “programmed” and
“unprogrammed” organizational decisions; he
highlighted the importance of the distinction
for management information systems. (p.252)
(Case1: 政府再造 大有為變小而能)
(Case2: 料敵從寬 防疫敗給官僚)
„
His work on administrative science and
decision making went in two major directions:
First, he was a pioneer in developing the
“science” of improved organizational decision
making through quantitative methods such as
operations research and computer
technology. Second, and perhaps even more
important, he was a leader in studying the
processes by which administrative
organizations make decisions. (p.252)
7.2 The Impact of Sociology
„
One of the major themes of the neoclassical
organization theorists was that organizations
did not - indeed, could not - exist as selfcontained islands isolated from their
environments. As might be expected, the first
significant efforts to “open up” organizations
(theoretically speaking) came from analysts
whose professional identity required them to
take a broad view of things - from sociologists.
(p.252)
„
One such analyst was Philip Selznick, who in
his 1948 American Sociological Review article,
“Foundations of the Theory of Organization,”
asserted that while it is possible to describe
and design organizations in a purely rational
manner, such efforts can never hope to cope
with the nonrational aspects of organizational
behavior. (p.252)
„
In contrast with the classical theorists,
Selznick maintained that organizations were
make up of individuals whose goals and
aspirations might not necessarily coincide
with the formal goals of the organization - as
opposed to consisting of just a number of
positions for management to control. (p.252)
„
„
Neoclassical writers such as Simon and
Selznick opened up the field of organization
theory. Thereafter, it would be inherently
interdisciplinary and open to the perspectives
of sociology, cultural anthropology, political
science, business administration, economics
and, of course, public administration. (p.252)
Table 6.1 (pp.252-253)
8. “Modern” Structural Organization Theory
„
Usually when someone refers to the
structure of an organization, that person is
talking about the relatively stable
relationships among the positions and
groups of positions (units) that comprise the
organization.
(Case1:政府再造 大有為變小而能)
(Case2:料敵從寬 防疫敗給官僚)
„
Structural organization theory is concerned
with vertical differentiations - hierarchical
levels of organizational authority and
coordination, and horizontal differentiations
between organizational units - for example,
between product or service lines,
geographical areas, or skills. The
organization chart is the ever-present “tool” of
a structural organization theorist. (p.253,254)
8.1 Basic Assumptions
„
The label “modern” is used to distinguish
the more recent writers of structural
organization theory from the pre-World War
II classical theorists such as Taylor and
Weber. Management analysts Lee Bolman
and Terrence Deal identified the basic
assumptions of the “modern” structural
school:
1.
Organizations are rational institutions whose
primary purpose is to accomplish
established objectives; rational
organizational behavior is achieved best
through systems of defined rules and formal
authority. Organizational control and
coordination are key for maintaining
organizational rationality. (p.254)
2.
There is a “best” structure for any organizationor at least a most appropriate structure - in light
of its given objective, the environmental
conditions surrounding it (for example, its
markets, the competition, and the extent of
government regulation), the nature of its
products and/or services (the “best” structure
for a management consulting firm probably is
substantially different than for a certified public
accounting firm), and the technology of the
production processes (a coal mining company
has a different “best structure” than the
manufacturer of computer microcomponents).
(p.254)
3.
4.
Specialization and the division of labor
increase the quality and quantity of
production - particularly in highly skilled
operations and professions.
Most problems in an organization result
from structural flaws and can be solved by
changing the structure. (p.254)
8.2 Mechanistic and Organic Systems
„
Burns and Stalker found that stable
conditions may suggest the use of a
mechanistic form of organization, where a
traditional pattern of hierarchy, reliance on
formal rules of regulations, vertical
communications, and structural decision
making is possible. (p.254)
„
However, more dynamic conditions –
situations in which the environment changes
rapidly – require the use of an organic form of
organization where there is less rigidity, more
participation, and more reliance on workers to
define and redefine their positions and
relationships. (p.254)
9. Systems Theory
„
Systems theory views an organization as a
complex set of dynamically intertwined and
interconnected elements, including its inputs,
processes, outputs, feedback loops, and the
environment in which it operates and with
which it continuously interacts. (p.255)
(Case2:料敵從寬 防疫敗給官僚)
„
The interconnections tend to be complex,
dynamic (constantly changing), and often
unknown. Thus, when management makes
decisions involving one organizational
element, unanticipated impacts usually occur
throughout the organizational system.
Systems theorists study these
interconnections, frequently using
organizational decision processes and
information and control systems as their focal
points for analysis. (p.255)
„
Whereas classical organization theory tends
to be one-dimensional and somewhat
simplistic, systems theories tend to be
multidimensional and complex in their
assumptions about organizational cause-andeffect relationships. The classicalists viewed
organizations as static (unchanging)
structures; systems theorists see
organizations as continually changing
processes of interactions among
organizational and environmental elements.
(p.255)
„
„
Organizations, not being static, are in
constantly shifting states of dynamic
equilibrium. (p.255)
The maintenance of this dynamic equilibrium
was the task referred to in the title of the
1938 classic The Functions of the Executive,
by Chester I. Barnard. Barnard viewed
organizations as cooperative systems where
“the function of the executive” was to
maintain the dynamic equilibrium between
the needs of the organization and the needs
of its employees. (p.255)
„
In order to do this, management had to be
aware of the interdependent nature of the
formal and informal organization. Barnard’s
analysis of the significance and role of
informal organizations provided the
theoretical foundations for a whole generation
of empirical research. (p.255)
9.1 Cybernetics
„
Because organizations are adaptive systems
that are integral parts of their environments,
they must adjust to changes in their
environment if they are to survive; in turn,
virtually all of their decisions and actions
affect their environment. (p.255)
(Case1:政府再造 大有為變小而能)
„
Norbert Wiener’s model of an organization as
an adaptive system, from his 1948 book
Cybernetics, epitomizes the basic theoretical
perspectives of the systems perspective.
Cybernetics, from a Greek word meaning
“steersman,” was used by Wiener to mean
the multidisciplinary study of the structures
and functions of control and information
processing systems in animals and machines.
(p.256)
„
The systems approach is strongly causeand-effect oriented (logical-positivist) in its
philosophy and methods. In these respects,
systems theories have close ties to Taylor’s
scientific management approach. (p.256)
„
Whereas Taylor used quantitative scientific
methods to find “the one best way,” the
systems theorist uses quantitative scientific
methods to identify cause-effect relationships
and to find optimal solutions. In this sense, the
conceptual approaches and purposes between
the two perspectives are strikingly similar.
Thus systems approaches are often called
management sciences or administrative
sciences. However, one should never make
the unpardonable error of calling them
scientific management! (p.256)
„
Systems thinking is critically important
because the whole world, in essence, is a
collection of interrelated systems. Nothing
happens in isolation. (p.256)
9.2 The Learning Organization
„
MIT Professor Peter Senge’s The Fifth
Discipline became one of the most influential
“systems” books of the 1990s. Senge sought
to destroy the “illusion that the world is
created of separate, unrelated forces. When
we give up this illusion-we can then build
“learning organizations.” (p.257)
(Case2:料敵從寬 防疫敗給官僚)
„
This phrase (learning organization) is
Senge’s term for “organizations where people
continually expand their capacity to create
the results they truly desire, where new and
expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured,
where collective aspiration is set free, and
where people are continually learning how to
learn together.” (p.257)
9.3 Complex Adaptive Systems
„
While Franklin, Weiner, Gleick, and Senge
have pushed the theory that one small
change can have much larger ramifications,
contemporary public administrators are
increasingly turning to the study of complex
adaptive systems (CAS). In the wake of the
terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001,
public administration scholars have become
increasingly interested in thinking about
organizations as systems capable of reacting
to very quickly changing circumstances and
threats. (p.258)
„
While difficult, methods such as laboratory
experiments and computer modeling have
shown promising results in predicting what
will happen when even the smallest changes
occur. (p.258)
The End