Aantekeningen Educational Organization and Management
Lecture 1: Introduction to organizational theory 8-2-2023
Assessment
Paper and pencil test:
o Study material: articles lectures 3 to 6 (required literature) and lecture slides (available
through Brightspace);
o Date: April 4, 2023 (resit: June 22, 2023)
Assignment:
o Analysis of a case study: case study of a secondary school, < 2000 words
o Group assignment: 4 students (deadline for group formation: February 17, 2023),
appendix with contribution of each group member
We need lecture 1, 2 and 4 for the paper
o Deadline: April 12, 2023 (‘resit’: May 26, 2023)
Frederick W. Taylor (1856-1915)
Scientific management theory
o We try to look for some sort of standardization
o Trying to make things more efficient
Principles:
o Time and motion studies
o Standardization of parts and tools
Increasing productivity
Standardize all the different steps in a process analyse the work process in a
technical way (stopwatch management)
Standardization of work and materials so you don’t have to adapt in new work
situations
o Introduction of performance pay
Paying for performance will lead to higher performance higher earnings
o Division between planning and operation
Not all decision-making power to the people that do the work, but have a
separate group that plans the work and a group that performs the work
o Implementation of scientific selection of personnel
Henri Fayol (1841-1925)
Wanted to improve work processes in mining company
Five management activities:
o Prévoir: planning and looking forward
Identifying goals
o Organiser: assign tasks and responsibilities to workers
o Commander: command workers
Unity of command: 1 person who designs and commands workers
This exists in multiple layers of the organisation
Way of structuring and influencing what happens in the organisation
o Coordonner: coordination of activities towards the goals of the organisation
Overview of daily activities
o Contrôler: control and evaluation
Max Weber (1864-1920)
Structure in which everyone is treated the same
Ideal type of bureaucracy:
o Responsibility guided by rules
If everyone has to follow the same rules, then everyone is treated the same way
o Hierarchy
, o Desk (Bureau) work based on written documents
o Specialized training
o Full-day job
o Principle of general, more or less stable, rules that can be communicated to others
Elton Mayo (1880-1949)
Hawthorne experiments
o Behaving differently when you know you’re being observed
Effect is caused by the observation rather than the invention
o Western Electric Company in Chicago
o 1924-1932
o Relationship between quality and quantity of illumination on workers’ performance
o Subsequently: Relay Assembly Room experiments and Bank Wiring Room experiments
Relay Assembly Test Room
Change of work conditions:
o Length and intervals of working time and breaks;
o Total number of working hours per shift;
o Refreshments like drinks and food
o All changes (also returning to the ‘worst’ condition) led to higher performance
Bank Wiring Room
Relationship between employees:
o Observations during work, and interviews with (male) workers;
o Despite payment by amount of work no increase in performance was found;
o Explanations: social pressures by the group, and social relationships at the workplace
Protect the group from internal indiscretions
Protect it from outside interference
Human Relations approach (1930-1950)
Rationale:
o Organizations are complex social environments;
Organisations are not just technical places
o Informal relationships are more important than the formal hierarchy;
o Groups develop their own behavioral norms, based on the specific situation, which has its
own dynamics.
People work harder when they feel valued, get attention and are treated as a person, rather than
just a worker
Socio-technics (after 1950)
Tavistock Institute of Human Relations:
o Found that participation of employees itself was insufficient for an adequate functioning
of organizations;
o Joint optimization of the technical system and the social system.
Socio-technical systems
Systems theory
Organizations are conceived as, and analyzed as systems
o Input, throughput (process) and output
Output should be according to the goals of the organisation
o Interrelations between ‘units’ and environment (feedback)
Don’t just look at the organisation, but at its relationships with the environment
o Aggregate levels
, Separate units/levels of the organisation and its relationships with other units
and the environment
Modern version: the learning organization (Peter Senge)
Contingency theory (after 1960)
Joan Woodward: unit production, mass production and process production;
o Ultimate span of control: how many people can someone supervise?
o If we make units, how big should they be?
o There is no best span of control, it depends on the type of organisation and workflow
Paul Lawrence and Jay Lorsch: differentiation and integration
o Environments are structured in different ways
o Best way of coordinating tasks within an organisation depends on type of activities,
stakeholders, organisation, situation, requirements, demands
Henry Mintzberg: configuration and congruency
o Look for the best way of coordination, given the context
Designing effective organisations
Identification and distribution of tasks (division of labour)
Linking of the tasks to one another (coordination)
Design parameters
Comparison to human body:
1. Bones
2. Connection between bones: skeleton
3. Muscles
4. Brain decision-making
Specialisation: horizontal & vertical
Formalization of behaviour: less relevant in school, but still part of education (example: testing
processes)
Unit size (related to span of control): not really relevant in education
o There are units (esp. in secondary education) but not a lot of supervision what
teachers do and know is determined by their training, not by supervisors
Planning and control: in the last decades there have been more rules and requirements for
teachers
Horizontal decentralization: power is given to multiple people and teams, they have power over
their own part of the organisation
Vertical decentralization: someone higher in the hierarchy can give a direct command to someone
lower in the hierarchy
Typology of the environment
Four dimensions:
o Complexity (knowledge to deal with demands)
If the organisation is more complex, you need more knowledge to handle it
o Diversity (variation but predictable changes)
Lecture 1: Introduction to organizational theory 8-2-2023
Assessment
Paper and pencil test:
o Study material: articles lectures 3 to 6 (required literature) and lecture slides (available
through Brightspace);
o Date: April 4, 2023 (resit: June 22, 2023)
Assignment:
o Analysis of a case study: case study of a secondary school, < 2000 words
o Group assignment: 4 students (deadline for group formation: February 17, 2023),
appendix with contribution of each group member
We need lecture 1, 2 and 4 for the paper
o Deadline: April 12, 2023 (‘resit’: May 26, 2023)
Frederick W. Taylor (1856-1915)
Scientific management theory
o We try to look for some sort of standardization
o Trying to make things more efficient
Principles:
o Time and motion studies
o Standardization of parts and tools
Increasing productivity
Standardize all the different steps in a process analyse the work process in a
technical way (stopwatch management)
Standardization of work and materials so you don’t have to adapt in new work
situations
o Introduction of performance pay
Paying for performance will lead to higher performance higher earnings
o Division between planning and operation
Not all decision-making power to the people that do the work, but have a
separate group that plans the work and a group that performs the work
o Implementation of scientific selection of personnel
Henri Fayol (1841-1925)
Wanted to improve work processes in mining company
Five management activities:
o Prévoir: planning and looking forward
Identifying goals
o Organiser: assign tasks and responsibilities to workers
o Commander: command workers
Unity of command: 1 person who designs and commands workers
This exists in multiple layers of the organisation
Way of structuring and influencing what happens in the organisation
o Coordonner: coordination of activities towards the goals of the organisation
Overview of daily activities
o Contrôler: control and evaluation
Max Weber (1864-1920)
Structure in which everyone is treated the same
Ideal type of bureaucracy:
o Responsibility guided by rules
If everyone has to follow the same rules, then everyone is treated the same way
o Hierarchy
, o Desk (Bureau) work based on written documents
o Specialized training
o Full-day job
o Principle of general, more or less stable, rules that can be communicated to others
Elton Mayo (1880-1949)
Hawthorne experiments
o Behaving differently when you know you’re being observed
Effect is caused by the observation rather than the invention
o Western Electric Company in Chicago
o 1924-1932
o Relationship between quality and quantity of illumination on workers’ performance
o Subsequently: Relay Assembly Room experiments and Bank Wiring Room experiments
Relay Assembly Test Room
Change of work conditions:
o Length and intervals of working time and breaks;
o Total number of working hours per shift;
o Refreshments like drinks and food
o All changes (also returning to the ‘worst’ condition) led to higher performance
Bank Wiring Room
Relationship between employees:
o Observations during work, and interviews with (male) workers;
o Despite payment by amount of work no increase in performance was found;
o Explanations: social pressures by the group, and social relationships at the workplace
Protect the group from internal indiscretions
Protect it from outside interference
Human Relations approach (1930-1950)
Rationale:
o Organizations are complex social environments;
Organisations are not just technical places
o Informal relationships are more important than the formal hierarchy;
o Groups develop their own behavioral norms, based on the specific situation, which has its
own dynamics.
People work harder when they feel valued, get attention and are treated as a person, rather than
just a worker
Socio-technics (after 1950)
Tavistock Institute of Human Relations:
o Found that participation of employees itself was insufficient for an adequate functioning
of organizations;
o Joint optimization of the technical system and the social system.
Socio-technical systems
Systems theory
Organizations are conceived as, and analyzed as systems
o Input, throughput (process) and output
Output should be according to the goals of the organisation
o Interrelations between ‘units’ and environment (feedback)
Don’t just look at the organisation, but at its relationships with the environment
o Aggregate levels
, Separate units/levels of the organisation and its relationships with other units
and the environment
Modern version: the learning organization (Peter Senge)
Contingency theory (after 1960)
Joan Woodward: unit production, mass production and process production;
o Ultimate span of control: how many people can someone supervise?
o If we make units, how big should they be?
o There is no best span of control, it depends on the type of organisation and workflow
Paul Lawrence and Jay Lorsch: differentiation and integration
o Environments are structured in different ways
o Best way of coordinating tasks within an organisation depends on type of activities,
stakeholders, organisation, situation, requirements, demands
Henry Mintzberg: configuration and congruency
o Look for the best way of coordination, given the context
Designing effective organisations
Identification and distribution of tasks (division of labour)
Linking of the tasks to one another (coordination)
Design parameters
Comparison to human body:
1. Bones
2. Connection between bones: skeleton
3. Muscles
4. Brain decision-making
Specialisation: horizontal & vertical
Formalization of behaviour: less relevant in school, but still part of education (example: testing
processes)
Unit size (related to span of control): not really relevant in education
o There are units (esp. in secondary education) but not a lot of supervision what
teachers do and know is determined by their training, not by supervisors
Planning and control: in the last decades there have been more rules and requirements for
teachers
Horizontal decentralization: power is given to multiple people and teams, they have power over
their own part of the organisation
Vertical decentralization: someone higher in the hierarchy can give a direct command to someone
lower in the hierarchy
Typology of the environment
Four dimensions:
o Complexity (knowledge to deal with demands)
If the organisation is more complex, you need more knowledge to handle it
o Diversity (variation but predictable changes)
