What is the classical school of thought in public administration?

The classical theory projects public administration as a science. Both these authors argued that
like the stream of engineering became science through methods of empirical observation,
systematic finding and recordings over a period of time similarly, public administrators can
create the science of administration.

Important Figures in Public Administration Theory

Max Weber

Max Weber was a German political economist, social scientist, and renowned Philosopher is an
important father to the theory of Public Administration and the bureaucratic side of it. He did
extensive research studying ancient and modern states to gather a better perspective of
bureaucracies in multiple eras for his Magnum Opus Economy and Society published in 1922.
That piece of work has contributed countless insight into the Public Administration Theory. Max
Weber considered bureaucracy to be the most rational form of administration yet devised by
man. In his writings he asserts that domination is exerted through administration and that for
legal domination to take place bureaucracy is required.

Woodrow Wilson

Woodrow Wilson defined public administration as a detailed and systematic execution of public
law, he divided government institutions into two separate sectors, administration and politics.
According to him politics is dealt with policy formulation and questions regarding such, whereas
administration is equipped with carrying said policies out. In his own words in his early essay,
"The Study of Administration" he said "it is getting to be harder to run a constitution than to
frame one." Wilson very much so tried to establish a distinction between politics and
administration; he saw administration as a field of business which lies outside politics. He
thought the theory of public administration existed simply because of technicalities and was
around for the behind the scenes business aspect of politics.
Frederick Winslow Taylor
Frederick Taylor was an engineer by profession who saw much of life from a scientific aspect.
He is a popular less conservative contributor to the Theory of Public Administration in that he
produced his own, very popular, theory of traditional public administration, The Scientific
Management Theory. He was concerned with finding the best and most efficient way to
complete a task for a particular job, reducing the overall labor a worker had to exert with the
least amount of movements. Frederick Taylors work approached motivation with a very
authoritative, cold, scientific motivator which weighed heavy over any sort of humane aspect to
scientific management. Overall many intricacies in Public Administration such as management,
control and accounting are subject to scientific principles and Taylor draws on these to find his
own, efficient theory approach to Public Administration Theory.

Frederick Winslow Taylor, who is generally acknowledged as the father of scientific

management believed that organizations should study tasks and prepare precise procedures.
His varied experience gave him ample opportunity to have firsthand knowledge and intimate
insight into the problems and attitude of workers, and to explore great possibilities for
improving the quality of management in the workplace.
Formulating his theory based on firsthand experience, Taylor’s theory focused on ways to
increase the efficiency of employees by molding their thought and scientific management.
Henry Gnatt, an associate of Taylor, developed the Gnatt Chart, a bar graph that measures
planned and completed work along with each stage of production. This visual display chart has
been a widely used control and planning tool since its development in 1910. Following is a
sample of Gnatt Chart.
Frank Gilbreth and his wife, Lillian Moller Gilbreth further improvised on Taylor’s time studies,
devising motion studies by photographing the individual movements of each worker. They
carefully analyzed the motions and eliminated unnecessary ones. These motion studies were
preceded by timing each task, so the studies were called time and motion studies.
Applying time and motion studies to bricklaying, the Gilbreths devised a way for workers to lay
bricks that eliminated wasted motion and raised their productivity from 1,000 bricks per day to
2,700 bricks per day.
The Basic Principles of Scientific Management
 Developing new standard method of doing each job.
 Selecting training and developing workers instead of allowing them to self-train
and choose their own tasks.
 Develop cooperation between workers and management.
 Division of work on the basis of the group that is best fitted to do the job.

Henry Fayol’s Universal Process theory

One of the oldest and most popular approaches, Henry Fayol’s theory holds that administration
of all organizations – whether public or private, large or small – requires the same rational
process or functions.
This school of thought is based on two assumptions −
 Although the objective of an organization may differ (for example, business,
government, education, or religion), yet there is a core management process that
remains the same for all institutions.
 Successful managers, therefore, are interchangeable among organizations of
differing purposes. The universal management process can be reduced to a set of
separate functions and related principles.
Fayol identifies fourteen universal principles of management, which are aimed at showing
managers how to carry out their functional duties.

o Universal principles of Managers Functional Duties

management

1 Specialization of labor This improves the efficiency of labor through specialization, reducing labor
time and increasing skill development.

2 Authority This is the right to give orders which always carry responsibility
commensurate with its privileges.

3 Discipline It relies on respect for the rules, policies, and agreements that govern an
organization. Fayol ordains that discipline requires good superiors at all
 levels.

4 Unity of command This means that subordinates should receive orders from one superior
only, thus avoiding confusion and conflict.

5 Unity of direction This means that there should be unity in the directions given by a boss to
his subordinates. There should not be any conflict in the directions given
by a boss.

6 Subordination of According to this principle, the needs of individuals and groups within an
individual interest to organization should not take precedence over the needs of the
common good organization as a whole.

7 Remuneration Wages should be equitable and satisfactory to employees and superiors.

8 Centralization Levels at which decisions are to be made should depend on the specific
situation, no level of centralization or decentralization is ideal for all
situations.

9 Scale of chain The relationship among all levels in the organizational hierarchy and exact
lines of authority should be unmistakably clear and usually followed at all
times, excepting special circumstances when some departure might be
necessary.

1 Order There should be a place for everything, and everything should be in its
0 place. This is essentially a principle of organization in the arrangement of
things and people.

1 Equity Employees should be treated equitably in order to elicit loyalty and

1 devotion from personnel.

1 Personal tenure Views unnecessary turnover to be both the cause and the effect of bad
2 management; Fayol points out its danger and costs.

1 Initiative Subordinates should be encouraged to conceive and carryout ideas.

3

1 Esprit de corps Team work, a sense of unity and togetherness, should be fostered and
4 maintained.

Criticism of Classical theory

some of the important criticisms are as follows:

  These are just theories that are not scientifically proven
 We can find the neglect of the human dimensions in the theory
 These theories neglect the sociological aspects
 These theories neglect the psychological aspects
 Represented principles in the theory are based on the economic motivation of the
workers, there are no principles that represent the emotional motivation of the workers
to the office or other staff
 These theories are stable means designed organisations using such theories are not able
to adopt the changes
 These theories represent the organisation as an isolated system in any environment
 Only focused on the structure or hierarchy of the system
 Theories are non-descriptive which means a perfect reason for any suggestions under
the theory is not defined or not provided

Significance of Classical Theory

 We can find in the theories that public administration is expressed as a science at the
start and the end of the theory it is expressed as art, there can be principles that are not
applicable universally but their application depends on the personality of the in-charge
 These theories promote the use of administration deficient departments like reporting,
accounting, and budgeting
 These theories can play an important role in the industrial organisation because it gives
an overview of how we can make an organisation by assembling different departments

Conclusion

 Classical theory can be considered as the theory for establishing any organisation in
public administration. This theory explains how we can design an organisation and run it
to complete a predefined aim. Theories given by Luther Gulick and lundall Urvick are the
basic theories whose combination is called a classic theory.