Classical management theory
There are three well-established theories of classical management: Taylor,s Theory of Scientific Management, Fayol’s Administrative Theory, Weber’s Theory of Bureaucracy. Although these schools, or theories, developed historical sequence, later ideas have not replaced earlier ones. Instead, each new school has tended to complement or coexist with previous ones.
Theory recognizing the role that management plays in an organization. The importance of the function of management was first recognized by French industrialist Henri Fayol in the early 1900s.
In contrast to the purely scientific examination of work and organizations conducted by F W Taylor, Fayol proposed that any industrial undertaking had six functions: technical; commercial; financial; security; accounting; and managerial. Of these, he believed the managerial function, ‘to forecast and plan, to organize, to command, to coordinate, and control’, to be quite distinct from the other five. Fayol also identified general principles of management: division of work; authority and responsibility; discipline; unity of command; unity of direction; subordination of individual interest to general interest; remuneration of personnel; centralization; scalar chain of authority; order; equity; stability of tenure of personnel; initiative; and esprit de corps. Fayol 's views on management remained popular throughout a large part of the 20th century.
Evolution of Classical Approach to Management
Traditional process of learning is either through obsevation and experiment. Nature or environment is considered uniform and when we observe certain phenomenon or events uniformly leading to the same result or results, we conclude a cause and effect relationship between the two. This is learning by observation or in other words by experience.
Earlier thinkers on management followed this approach in developing theories of management. Learning