Chapter 2 Rational organizational design and bureaucracy
Fayol’s five functions of management
Planning/forecasting
Looking to the future, trying to calculate and predict future circumstances
(such as demand, competitors, etc.), and acting so as to be able to respond to
this.
Organizing
Building up the necessary structure, resources, and people to best meet the
needs and goals of the organization.
Coordinating
Bringing together the structure, human, and resource elements of the
organization to act in harmony and towards the goals of the organization.
Commanding
Giving orders and directions to people within the organization to maintain
activity towards achieving the organization’s goals.
Controlling
Checking and inspecting work-monitoring and surveillance of work done
rather than direct command.
Direct control
Face-to-face control of workers by a manager or owner. -> small-scale organizations
Impersonal control
Control of workers that is not done face to face, for example through delegation or through
rules and procedures. -> large-scale organizations
Rational organizational design
The design of organizational structures and activities in order to achieve the organization’s
goals in the most technically efficient manner. Rational organization suggests an
organization which is designed logically and systematically, even scientifically, so as to
achieve its aims.
-> such impersonal, rational forms of organizational design and control are termed
‘bureaucracy’.
Aspects of bureaucracy
Bureaucracy refers to the formal structures and procedures that facilitate the management
of an organization, in particular as a solution to the problem of diminishing control as an
organization outgrows personal, face-to-face management.
A hierarchy, or structure of offices, develops, with each level reporting to the level
above and commanding the level below. This hierarchy is often represented as an
organization structure or chart.
Rules, procedures, and policies are instructions, usually written down, which govern
activity across an organization.
Fayol’s five functions of management
Planning/forecasting
Looking to the future, trying to calculate and predict future circumstances
(such as demand, competitors, etc.), and acting so as to be able to respond to
this.
Organizing
Building up the necessary structure, resources, and people to best meet the
needs and goals of the organization.
Coordinating
Bringing together the structure, human, and resource elements of the
organization to act in harmony and towards the goals of the organization.
Commanding
Giving orders and directions to people within the organization to maintain
activity towards achieving the organization’s goals.
Controlling
Checking and inspecting work-monitoring and surveillance of work done
rather than direct command.
Direct control
Face-to-face control of workers by a manager or owner. -> small-scale organizations
Impersonal control
Control of workers that is not done face to face, for example through delegation or through
rules and procedures. -> large-scale organizations
Rational organizational design
The design of organizational structures and activities in order to achieve the organization’s
goals in the most technically efficient manner. Rational organization suggests an
organization which is designed logically and systematically, even scientifically, so as to
achieve its aims.
-> such impersonal, rational forms of organizational design and control are termed
‘bureaucracy’.
Aspects of bureaucracy
Bureaucracy refers to the formal structures and procedures that facilitate the management
of an organization, in particular as a solution to the problem of diminishing control as an
organization outgrows personal, face-to-face management.
A hierarchy, or structure of offices, develops, with each level reporting to the level
above and commanding the level below. This hierarchy is often represented as an
organization structure or chart.
Rules, procedures, and policies are instructions, usually written down, which govern
activity across an organization.
