Classical Management Theory

Early Management Theories
Early Theories of Organizations emerged mainly for military and Catholic Church. The metaphor of the machine was dominant, where organizations are viewed as machines. Therefore, the organizational application was, since workers behave predictably (as machines do rarely deviate from the norm), management knows what to expect, and workers operating outside expectations are replaced.

Classical Management Theories
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 …show more content…

• Adoption of bureaucratic management systems allow organizations to grow into large complex organized systems geared towards formalized explicit goals.
• Weber's theory can be used as a gold standard to develop other modern theories.
Disadvantages
• Tendency for organizations to become procedure- dominated rather than goal dominated.
• Heavily formalized organizational roles suppress initiative and flexibility of the jobholders.
• Rigid behavior by senior managers can lead to standardized services that do not meet the needs of the client.
• Rigid procedures and rules are demotivating for the subordinates that work in the organizations.
• Exercise of control based on knowledge has led to the growth of experts whose opinions and attitudes may frequently clash with those of the more generalized managers and supervisors.

In general, all classical theories of management attempt to enhance management's ability to predict and control the behavior of their workers. They were distinguished by the strict control of workers, absolute chains of command, predictability of behavior, and unidirectional downward influence.

Challenge of the Classical Management theory
The behavioral school emerged partly because the classical management theories did not achieve sufficient production