POLS 2250 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Lyndall Urwick, Scientific Management, Lightning

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Political Science
• Course: POLS 2250
• Professor: Tim Mau

Document Summary

The following paper will compare the ideas and concepts presented by classical theorists, versus humanistic theorists. Workers are considered product of means of production, and formal communication processes between employees and management must be in place. This is comparable to a machine as it is hierarchical, efficient, highly centralized, tightly controlled and planning-oriented. He believed that employees are lazy by nature and that workers need financial incentives to help. He said we must use rewards and punishments and motivational tools. He argued that workers would put in minimal work if they got away with it. He measured the time of workers shoveling coal and averaged out the amount of time it took to complete a task. Weber had an ideal-type bureaucracy that consisted of seven components. Hierarchical structure meant that bureaucratic organization is arranged in a series of super-subordinate relationships. This was also known as the unity of command.