Organizational Behavior
Dr. Caren Rodrigues
History of OB
Taylor and Scientific Management
In the early days of management, people thought human beings could be managed as machines. Taylor
assumed that if an organization was broken up systematically on the basis of tasks, and each task was
scientifically analyzed, then the most efficient and effective way to do a particular task could be
identified. Workers could then be matched to the best jobs for them, and supervised. In this manner,
Taylor wanted to maximize employees' task performance, and maximize overall organizational
productivity. This view was called "scientific management".
Weber and Bureaucracy
The idea of bureaucracy is that an organization could be run by rules, not people. In a bureaucracy, all
the work in an organization has been divided into roles. Each person in an organization occupies a
clearly defined role. Each role has certain powers, laid down in the rules. There is also a clear reporting
structure, or hierarchy.
The two views above wrongly believed that employee performance could be maximized by scientific
analysis, or through rules. They forgot that people don't function predictably, unlike the laws of science.
The Hawthorne Experiments
These began as experiments in scientific management.
At the beginning of the experiments, it was predicted that workers would be more productive in better
light, as they can see better.
But what they found was worker productivity did increase in better light. But it even increased in poorer
light.
This showed that people are not as predictable as scientific management or bureaucracy say they are. It
therefore led the way to study people in organizations, or organizational behavior.