Administrative Management (Gullick, Urwick and Fayol) Paper : Perspectives on Public Administration Lesson : Administrative Management (Gullick, Urwick and Fayol) Lesson Developer: Dr. Avneet Kaur College/Department: Indraprastha College for Women, University of Delhi 1 University of Delhi , University of Delhi Administrative Management (Gullick, Urwick and Fayol) Table of Contents 1.1 Introduction 1.2 Administrative Management Theorists: 1.2.1 Henry Fayol 1.2.2 Mooney and Reiley 1.2.3 Gulick and Urwick 1.3 General Principle of Administration 1.3.1 Departmentalism 1.3.2 Unity of Directions 1.3.3 Unity of Command 1.3.4 Division of Work 1.3.5 Principle of Staff 1.3.6 Principle of Delegation 1.3.7 Principle of Authority and Responsibility 1.3.8 Principle of Espirit de corps 1.3.9 Principle of Hierarchy 1.3.10 Principle of Span of Control 1.4 Critical dimension of Administrative Management 1.5 Significance of Administrative Management 1.6 Conclusion 1.7 Glossary 1.8 Exercise / Practice 1.10 References/bibliography/ Further Reading 2 University of Delhi , University of Delhi Administrative Management (Gullick, Urwick and Fayol) 1.1 Introduction In public administration “Classical Theory” is the name given by Herbert Simon to the ideas and contributions of early twentieth century administrative practioners and theorist such as Henri Fayol, Luther Gulick, Lyndall, Urwick , J.D Mooney and A.C Reiley. All these writers believed in the existence of certain universal administrative principles the application of which could make organization function more efficiently. The Classical theory is known as the Administrative Management Theory and Formal Organization Theory (S.P Naidu, 1996,p.69). Henry Fayol who as the advocator of the managerial function by advocating the principles of planning, command, coordination to organization. Fayol approaches to management contradict that of Taylor approach of scientific management. Fayol approach was broader and more systematic while classical thinkers like Gulick and Urwick , Mooney and Reiley viewed an organization as a closed system. They elaborated many principles of authority, hierarchy, division of labour to encourage cooperation and coordination in an organization. They wanted to minimize conflict in the working of organization. Thinker like Taylor focussed his attention on the management by making it work like a shop floor management while Gulick and Urwick work is limited to the study of organisation as a whole. Taylor theory was called “scientific management” that focus his attention on bringing mental revolution through increasing the productivity of the workers. Taylor tried to improve efficiency and working standards and cooperation between managers and workers. The later writers like Gulick and Urwick give important to such principles or they were some rules to help managers manage their organisation in the best possible manner and increase efficiency and economy. Hence Administrative management is the process of managing information through people. This usually involves performing the storage and distribution of information to those within an organisation Taylor propounded four principles to bring change in the working of organisation: (a) To replace the notion of “ Rule of thumb” Instead use of scientific methods to make Organisation more efficient and functional (b) Jobs should be assigned to the workers on the basis of the capability and skills (c) Performance need to be monitored and supervised. (d) To allocate work between managers and Workers. 3 University of Delhi , University of Delhi Administrative Management (Gullick, Urwick and Fayol) F. Taylor Scientific Management is a theory of management that work processes in administration. The main objective of this approach is bringing efficiency in work procedure leading to increase in labour productivity. It was one of the method to apply scientific methods to the management procedures. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_management, accessed on 23 Dec,2015, 10:30am Hence, it can be said that administrative management theory is a way to develop an organisation in rational manner. This theory focus upon a structure where the principles of division of work and delegation are adopted and followed. In the next section, we will try to understand the important contributors to the administrative management theory. 1.2 Administrative Management Theorists Some of the few administrative management theorist who have contributed to the study and field of public administration are Fayol, Urwick and Gulick . These thinkers share some basic similarities with each other. First is that all of them gave importance to the structure of organisation. They believed that it is only through structure functions can be performed. There is a structure in organisation that assigns tasks to its workers and employees. They were of the opinion that organisation will be effective only when there is a well formulated structure. They have elaborated some of the principles of structure and its importance to the working of management processes. Secondly, they believed that these principles has universal claim based on the experiences of industrial organisation. They think that these principles should be applied universally for achieving better efficiency in management processes. Thirdly they believed that their ideas are not based about utopian notion, they are based on practical and real experience of industrial organisation. These ideas are more factual and empirical in nature. ”. They believed that application of these principles are important for any organisation that why they proposed for the idea of science of administration that is based on experience of organisation (Bhattacharya, 1981) .They believed that any kind of conflict hampers the efficiency of 4 University of Delhi , University of Delhi Administrative Management (Gullick, Urwick and Fayol) the working of organisation and therefore it is important that these conflicts should be minimised. They stressed on different kinds of rules and procedures, hierarchy to be followed so that organization can perform in a better way. This approach believed that for the efficiency of organization it is important that a kind of cooperation and harmony is maintained in the organization so that it leads to better performance and result. This kind of theoretical presumption supports the tradition notion of conflict theory. We will try to understand the important contributors to the Administrative Management approach are: 1.2.1 Henri Fayol 1.2.2 Henri Fayol Henri Fayol (Istanbul, 29 July 1841 – Paris, 19 November 1925). He was a French mining engineer and has developed theory of business administration. He developed his theory that was very different from scientific management theory. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Fayol, assessed on 24.12.15 at 12:30 pm. Henri Fayol propounded his theory on the basis of his own experience as a French mining engineer. He felt that there are certain important management principles that should be applied to the public organisation. He was a rational person who believed that division of labour can contribute to the efficiency of management. He believed that individuals should be associated with organisation. The function of the management was to plan, organize, command, coordinate and control and, at the same time, it had to be competent enough to elicit ‘loyalty and obedience’ from the workers. His management principles were imbibed from his experience of French army. The need for order, discipline and rationality was emphasized, Fayol spoke of individuals as ‘only a cog in a big machine, He stressed the importance of an organisation chart to clarify the line of authority, communication and to demarcate responsibilities (Organisation: Insights, 1992, p.34). Based on his experience he wrote a book ‘General and Industrial Management’ (1916). His papers on ‘The Theory of Administration in the State’ (1923), is considered as a major contribution to the theory of public administration. 5 University of Delhi , University of Delhi Administrative Management (Gullick, Urwick and Fayol) Although he has listed some of the important principles of management approach, but he has tried to describe the activities that is more of the description of the role played by managers in an organisation. There are fourteen principles that are enlisted by the Fayol based on his own experience as an administrator of public administration. They are (Stewart Clegg and David Dunkerley, 1980, p.99): 1. Division of Work: There is a need to divide work among groups and individual so that task is completed in a prescribed time. He thought that this kind of technique can utilise the skills of individual and best use of human resources is possible. 2. Authority: According to Fayol, authority is interrelated with responsibility. He believed that authority is right to give orders for the proper functioning of organisation. With every authority in organisation employee are responsible towards their organisation. 3. Discipline: Every organisation should ensure that discipline is maintained 4. Unity of Command: It is a norm where there is only one manager from whom workers receive their orders. 5. Unity of Direction: It emphasises on the principle that there should be common goal of organisation. 6. Subordination of Individual Interests to the general interest: In an organisation the interest of organization as a whole is taken care of and individual interest are sacrifice for the interest of organisation.