Submitted to: Dr.

Ghalib Ata

Submitted by: Rabia Rana

Roll No: Mphil-IAS-09-SSF-18

Summary:

The chapter “a brief history of organizational theory” is comprised of four major perspectives
one of which is consists of Pre-historic that starts with the concept of Division of Labor given by
Adam Smith. According to him, division of labor is separation of a work process into a number
of tasks, with each task performed by a separate person or group of persons. It led to
establishment of assembly line. Breaking down work into simple repetitive tasks eliminates
unnecessary motion and limits the handling of different tools and parts. Karl Marx stated the
theory of capital which stands by the human needs to survive. He said that for profitability the
owner of the organizations are pushing their labor to work more at cheap rates which is causing
the exploitation of labor class and this will ultimately lead to social conflict. Labor used to be
considered as a cost of production and thus dealt as commodity. Emile Durkhiem seconds the
work of Adam Smith but added a concept of “hierarchy” which is also known as social structure.
She also purposed the concept of informal organization which emphasizes workers’ social
needs. This informal organization helped in making knowledge of other fields like organizational
behavior. Max Weber emphsised upon
Critique:

The concept Division of Labor given by Adam Smith is not without faults, due to the repetition
of the same work the person can lose interest and also there would be no opportunity to show
creativity as it requires doing the same work overtime. Also, if the worker is dismissed from one
factory, he may have to search far and wide before he secures a job in which he has specialized.
Karl Marx talked about the social conflict (the class distinction between have & haves not)
which can never be possible without bloodshed and thus can result in a big loss. Also he
support that everything should belongs to government and private ownership shouldn’t be
allowed, in this case this will create monopoly of the government which could lead to
imbalance of power and anyone who stand against the government will be crushed. Emile
Durkheim made the addition in division of labor by applying hierarchy and independence of
work, though this concept was unique and still being followed and considered as an important
part of any organization but this has also a flaw which is not free (easy) flow of information or
miscommunication. This can cause delays and misunderstandings. Max Weber showed
bureaucracy (merit-based selection) as a technical way through which the organization can
increase its efficiency. But they can lose their interest in serving the public and could start
fulfilling their own interest. They can be inefficient, expensive and can cause “red-tape” barrier.
The theory requires an investment of huge capital and is considered as a costly system.
Scientific Management theory was centered on systematic study of people, behavior and tasks.
The negative aspect could be establishment of work study, planning department, training of
workers, and standardization requires more money and the critical postmodernist regard
Taylorism not a way to make organizations more rational through efficiency, but as a rationale
to justify the unprecedented power capitalists and managers enjoy today. Mary Poker
mentioned the workplace democracy and non-hierarchical networks but workplace democracy
is intended to create an environment where employees have a recognized and influential voice.
In some industries, employees form unions to ensure their voice is heard. The risk for
employers is that a democratic workplace may go too far if employees demand authority to go
along with their opinions. Henri Fayol developed administrative principles which go very well
but it focuses on organization and it doesn’t say anything about the customer which is the
ultimate revenue generators. It would be better if the organization was structured to service
the needs of the customer. Postmodernists criticizes Barnard with relations of negative
interdependence (opposite to cooperative social systems) the net result will always be one of
the agents assuming a dominant position while the other a subordinated position, thus defining
a power dynamic. The Modern organization theory comprised of three theories one of which is
general system theory about which critics say that humans will never be smart enough to find
solutions to problems that stretch so far over their heads (regarding social organization). Socio-
technical system theory focus on self-management (autonomous work groups) which could
lead to delays in decision making and also the nature of interdependencies of employees over
each other is not defined. Contingency approach suffers from inadequately of literature and it is
basically reactive in nature. It not definitively but nearly suggests what managers can do in a
given situation. The third view is symbolic perspective comprise of social construction theory
only try to interpret the social realities that people construct rather than trying to explain
where they came from due to this the socially constructed reality could be complicated to
study. Enactment theory is not so appealing when it says that organization exists in the minds
of organization members but it exists with a proper structure that is visible.