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THE RELEVANCE OF CHESTER BARNARD FOR TODAY’S MANAGER
Jay P. Chandran, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Richard DeVos Graduate School of Management Northwood University Email: chandran@northwood.edu
THE RELEVANCE OF CHESTER BARNARD FOR TODAY’S MANAGER
It has been sixty years since the publication of Chester Barnard’s Functions of the Executive. In many ways, Barnard’s book laid the foundation for Management and Organization Theory as it exists today (Andrews, 1968; Wolf, 1974). His influence on theoreticians and practitioners has been immense. Kenneth Andrews, in his introduction to the 30th Anniversary edition of the book, states: “The Functions of the Executive remains today, as it has been since its publication, the most thought-provoking book on organization and management ever written by a practicing executive.” (Andrews 1968, p. xxi). Barnard was not an academic; his theories were put together painstakingly from decades of organizational experience. In this aspect, he is rather unique among management scholars of the twentieth century. However, during the last several years, Barnard’s stature in the realm of management theory and practice has gradually waned. Although his book is required reading in the occasional Doctoral curriculum, it has more or less disappeared from the mainstream of management literature. He is infrequently cited, and credited with originating the “Acceptance Theory of Authority”, but not much else. Barnard partly owes this undeserved obscurity to his labored and lugubrious style: He is extremely difficult to read. Wolf (1974, p. vii) writes: “Over the years I became aware that Barnard’s book proved to be obtuse for many professors as well as their students. Often in informal discussions my colleagues would confess that they found Barnard needlessly abstract, horribly redundant, and extremely hard to follow.”
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While this may discourage the casual reader, it should not stand in the way of the serious student of Management,
Jay P. Chandran, Ph.D. Assistant Professor Richard DeVos Graduate School of Management Northwood University Email: chandran@northwood.edu
THE RELEVANCE OF CHESTER BARNARD FOR TODAY’S MANAGER
It has been sixty years since the publication of Chester Barnard’s Functions of the Executive. In many ways, Barnard’s book laid the foundation for Management and Organization Theory as it exists today (Andrews, 1968; Wolf, 1974). His influence on theoreticians and practitioners has been immense. Kenneth Andrews, in his introduction to the 30th Anniversary edition of the book, states: “The Functions of the Executive remains today, as it has been since its publication, the most thought-provoking book on organization and management ever written by a practicing executive.” (Andrews 1968, p. xxi). Barnard was not an academic; his theories were put together painstakingly from decades of organizational experience. In this aspect, he is rather unique among management scholars of the twentieth century. However, during the last several years, Barnard’s stature in the realm of management theory and practice has gradually waned. Although his book is required reading in the occasional Doctoral curriculum, it has more or less disappeared from the mainstream of management literature. He is infrequently cited, and credited with originating the “Acceptance Theory of Authority”, but not much else. Barnard partly owes this undeserved obscurity to his labored and lugubrious style: He is extremely difficult to read. Wolf (1974, p. vii) writes: “Over the years I became aware that Barnard’s book proved to be obtuse for many professors as well as their students. Often in informal discussions my colleagues would confess that they found Barnard needlessly abstract, horribly redundant, and extremely hard to follow.”
2
While this may discourage the casual reader, it should not stand in the way of the serious student of Management,