Dr Alf Crossman

Organisational Behaviour

Management Work

1

Key Areas of Focus
• Division of Labour
• Adam Smith

• General Principles of Management • Scientific Management
• Frederick Winslow Taylor
Organisational Behaviour

• Henri Fayol

• Bureaucracy
• Max Weber

2

Session Objectives
• To explore the nature of classical organization theory • To become familiar with the key classical theorists’ work • To understand the principles and impact of:
Organisational Behaviour

• Bureaucracy • Management

• To understand the principles and impact of:
• Division of labour • Scientific management/Taylorism • Fordism

• To explore the arguments surrounding ‘deskilling’ and labour process

3

The Obsession with Organization
Before the factory system production took place primarily in cottages – the ‘putting out’ system and small workshops. Output was the main priority. Self-organization was the predominant approach. The introduction of the factory system introduced a new imperative – time. Time became a valuable resource and organization of labour became increasingly important

Organisational Behaviour

4

Of the Division of Labour
• Adam Smith –
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, 1776 • Pin-making example • Division of Labour
In an early chapter of his book, Smith observes: “One worker could probably make only twenty pins per day. However, if ten people divided up the eighteen steps required to make a pin, they could, if they exerted themselves make a combined amount of 48,000 pins in one day.”

Organisational Behaviour

5

Of the Division of Labour
Adam Smith (1776)
One man draws out the wire, another straightens it, a third cuts it, a fourth points it, a fifth Grinds it at the top for receiving the head: to make the head requires two or three distinct operations to put it on, is a