The Classical School Of Management

INTRODUCTION
Over the decades, management practice has evolved as new management theories have been proposed by various individuals. These have been classified into several management schools of thought. These have evolved since the 1880’s with several schools of management principles being identified and classified in several ways by the experts.
These management theories can be classified into three broad groups:
1) Classical management theory
2) Neoclassical management theory
3) Modern management theory
Under each theory, a few schools of thought have been recognised and identified.

CLASSICAL MANAGEMENT THEORY (l880s-1920s)
In the late 19th century and early 20th century, a group of similar ideas on the management of organizations were

This assumes that people choose the course of action that maximizes their economic remuneration. This assumes that the average person is motivated by economic rewards and they make decisions that yield the greatest monetary gains.
Therefore to get workers to perform well, managers need to appeal to their financial needs. The main contributions of the classical school of management includes (i) scientific application to the management practice (ii) improvement of the basic management functions and (iii) application of specific management principles. 1.1 Scientific Management
Scientific management was mainly developed by Frederick Taylor (1856-1915) and is the name given to the principles and practices that evolved out of the work of Frederick Taylor and his followers. Four basic parts of a series of ideas developed by Taylor are as follows:
i) Each person’s job should be divided up into sections and a scientific way to perform each section should be determined. ii) Workers should be selected scientifically and trained to do the work in the prescribed

Therefore the focus of administrative management theory is on finding ‘the best way’ to run an organization. This theory is also called administrative or traditional principles of management. The chief designer and developer of the administrative management theory was Henry Fayol (1841-1925) a French industrialist.
Fayol was the managing director of a mining company and he developed a unified model of management and administrative principles appropriate to general and higher managerial levels. Instead of using the term ‘management’, he used the word ‘administration’. Fayol focused on managerial levels and the organization as a whole. His viewpoint extended beyond the shop floor level and the physical production processes and was more overall in