The document provides an overview of the development of organizational theory over time from the late 19th century to present day. It outlines several schools of thought in organizational theory and lists important theorists within each. The schools discussed include Classical Organizational Theory, Neoclassical Organizational Theory, Human Resource Theory, Modern Structural Organizational Theory, Organizational Economics Theory, Power and Politics Organizational Theory, Theories of Organizational Culture and Change, and Contemporary Schools of Management Thought among others. For each school, influential theorists and their major contributions are highlighted.

1. Organizational Theory Timeline
At the turn of the 20th century, the first theories of
management, Classical Organizational Theory, came about.
Since this time, many schools of thought have been presented
throughout the years by practitioners/businessmen and
academicians who have shown interest in the subject of
management. As a result, numerous approaches or what are
called schools of thought have developed. Theorists have added
to the body of thought and even contradicted what was
previously presented. You will see below that there are many
thoughts about management and in the 21st century management
has continued to change. Theories of the 21st century have not
been presented here but you are able to explore these thoughts
further within your class.
Below, the schools of thought are highlighted in blue. In
bolded black, a brief overview of each school of thought is
presented. Theorists who wrote and presented their ideas are
identified under each of the schools of thought. Bulleted
highlights for each theorist are provided. You will see that
some theorist fall within more than one school of thought, an
indication that management has evolved over the years.
School of Thought: Classical Organizational Theory
(PreWorld War II). First theory of management and is the first
building block that all other management theories making it
important to gain knowledge of this school of thought. The
structuralist who focused on structure or design and production
processes
Theorists:
· Adam Smith

2. · Laid the foundations of classical free market economic theory
· Best known for two classic works; the theory of moral
sentiments and an inquiry into the nature and causes of the
wealth of nations
· Believed economic prosperity would result from rational self-
interest and competition
· Henry Towne
· One of the first engineers to recognize the importance of
management in engineering
· Developed the Towne-Halsey plan
· Recording the quickest time to complete a job and fixing it as
a standard
· Workers are compensated for working faster than the standard
· Concept similar to piece work
· Henry Fayol
· Fayolism
· First general theory of management
· Known as the Father of Management
· Concept of administration
· Book – Administration Industrielle et Generale
· Proposed five functions of management
· Laid down the 14 principles of management
· Frederick Taylor
· Applied engineering principles to factory work
· Leader of the intellectual movement
· Penned the book, “The Principles of Scientific Management”
· Through time and motion studies developed the one best way
to complete a task
· Speed and feed calculating slide rules
· Max Weber
· One of the founders of sociology
· Best known for his thesis on economic sociology
· Observed the advantages of bureaucracy in organizations as
resulting in proficiency
· Suggested capitalism was born out of a set of religious ideas –
based on protestant ideology

3. · Methodological antipositivism
School of Thought: Neoclassical Organizational Theory
(Post World War II through 1950s). Considered transitional
and/or reactionary to classical organizational theorist.
Challenged some of the basic tenets and raised issues and
created theories that became the basis for future schools of
organizational theory.
Theorists:
· Chester Bernard
· Management theory and organizational studies
· The functions of the executive
· Formulated two theories; authority and incentives
· Robert Merton
· Unintended consequences
· Role model
· Self-fulfilling prophecy
· Published 50 papers in social science
· Deviance typology
· Herbert Simon
· American Political Scientist
· Artificial intelligence
· Information processing
· Decision making
· Bounded rationality
· Satisficing
· Problem solving
· Philip Seznick
· Noted author in sociology of law and public administration
· Individuals as independent agents
· Cooptation theory
· Theories of mass society
· Richard Cyert & James March
· Behavioral theory of the firm
· The firm as a coalition of groups

4. · Satisficing behavior
· Process of decision making
· Organizational slack
· Critical evaluation
School of Thought: Human Resource Theory
(1957 to present) Concerned with behavior of people in
organizations. Belief is that human capital is as important or
more important than the organization. Assumes organizational
creativity, flexibility and prosperity emanates from employee
growth and development.
Theorists:
· Mary Parker Follett
· Social worker turned management theorist
· Authored “The New State”
· Pioneered the understanding of lateral processes which led to
the formation of the matrix organization
· Elton Mayo
· Laid the foundation for the human relations movement
· Authored “The Human Problems of an Industrialized
Civilization
· Hawthorne Studies
· Fritz Roethlisberger
· Authored “Management and the Worker
· Published the first comprehensive findings of the Hawthorne
Studies
· Abraham Maslow
· Created the Hierarchy of Needs
· Humanistic theories of self-actualization
· Douglas McGregor
· Theory X and Theory Y
· Authored “The Human Side of Enterprise”
· Irving Janis
· Group think
· Authored “Psychological Stress,” “Victims of Groupthink,”

5. “Decision Making,” “Groupthink,” and “Crucial Decisions”
· Frank Gilbreth & Lillian Gilbreth
· Pioneered motion studies for use in motion pictures
· Broke work down into fundamental elements called therbligs
· One best way to complete household tasks
· Developed improvements in bricklaying
· Frederick Herzberg
· Job enrichment
· Motivator-hygiene theory
· Authored “One More Time, How Do you Motivate
Employees?”
School of Thought: Modern Structural Organizational Theory
(Second half of the 20th century). Organizational efficiency is
the essence of organizational rationality. The goal of
rationality is to increase production of wealth in terms of goods
and services. Influenced by human resource and
sociotechnology approach.
Theorists:
· Kurt Lewin
· Studied group dynamics and organizational development
· Force field analysis
· Leadership climates
· Lewin’s equation
· Group dynamics
· Tom Burns & G. M. Stalker
· Contingency theory
· Peter Blau & Richard Scott
· Co- Authored “Formal Organizations: A Comparative
Approach”
· Exchange theory - Blau
· Macrostructural theory – Blau
· Writing and research concentrated on the relationship between
organizations and their institutional environments - Scott
· Arthur Walter & Jay Lorsch

6. · Organizational Choice: Product vs. Function
· Henry Mintzberg
· Rebalancing society
· Organizational configurations framework
· Emergent strategy
· Elliot Jaques
· Developed the notion of requisite organization
· Richard Burton & Borge Obel
· Authored “Strategic Organizational Diagnosis and Design:
Developing Theory for Application”
· Co-founders of organizational consulting company…EcoMerc
· Fred Fiedler
· Helped move the field from research on traits and
characteristics of leaders to leadership styles and behaviors
· Fiedler Contingency Model
School of Thought: Organizational Economics Theory
(Second half of the 20th century). Explains the emergence and
expansion of organizations (hierarchies, information
asymmetries, bounded rationality, cognitive barriers and costs
associated with uncertainties). Include concepts such as agency
theory, behavioral theory, teams theory, transaction cost
economics, and game theory.
Theorists:
· Oliver Williamson
· Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science for his analysis of
economic governance
· Information impactedness
· Michael Jensen & William Meckling
· Co-authored “Theory of the Firm: Managerial Behavior,
Agency Costs and Ownership Structure”
· Jean-Jacques Rousseau
· Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
· Social Contract
· Richard Cyert & James March

7. · Behavorial Theory of the firm
School of Thought: Power and Politics Organizational Theory
(1970’s to current times). Rejects assumptions under “modern”
structural organizational theory that assume organizations are
naïve and unrealistic. This particular school views
organizations as complex systems of individuals and alliances,
all with own interest in terms of values, beliefs, perspectives,
and perceptions.
Theorists:
· Jeffrey Pfeffer
· Leadership BS
· The Human Equation
· The Knowing-Doing Gap
· Hidden Value
· Hard Facts
· What Were They Thinking?
· People Are the Name of the Game
· John French & Bertram Raven
· Five Forms of Power
· The Bases of Social Power
· James March
· Theory of the Firm
· Garbage Can Model
· Henry Mintzberg
· Rebalancing society
· Organizational configurations framework
· Emergent strategy
· Rosabeth Moss Kanter
· Author “Commitment & Community: Communes and Utopias
in Socialogical Perspective
· Conducted study on tokenism
· Study of Men and Women of Corporation
· Authored “Creating the Future: The Massachusetts Comeback

8. and its Promise for America
· John Kotter
· Leading Change
· Outlines 8 Step Process for Leading Change
School of Thought: Theories of Organizational Culture and
Change
(During the 1950s to 1960s, but did not gain notoriety in the
1980s). Belief that organizational culture is a social energy that
leads to make certain decision and explains why people to act as
they do, which links culture to behavior.
Theorists:
· Edgar Schein
· Developed Model of Organizational Culture
· Career Anchors
· Scott Cook & Dvora Yanow
· Authored Culture and Organizational Learning
· Karl Weick
· Introduced concepts of sensemaking and loosely coupled
systems
· Organizational behavior
· Proposed four organizational conditions for assumptions of
rational theories to be valid.
· Harrison Trice & Janice Beyer
· Authored “The Cultures of Work Organizations
· W. Edward Deming
· Out of Crisis
· System of Profound Knowledge
· William H. Whyte Jr
· Authored “The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces
· Street Life Project
· The Organization Man
· Terrence Deal and Allan Kennedy
· Cultural Model: Understanding Rites and Rituals in Corporate
Culture

9. School of Thought: Reform through Changes in Organizational
Culture
(1980s and 1990s). Came at a time when US companies lost
competitive edge and had to think beyond changes in structure
or functions to making changes in the organizational culture.
US competition was threatened or failed due to inability to
increase productivity. US found that it was not able to compete
with other industrialized nations. This movement required
organizations to make changes in organizational culture. What
came about included total quality management (TQM), the
learning organization, the balanced scorecard, and the quality of
work life.
Theorists:
· William Ouchi
· Theory Z
· Three approaches to control – market control, bureaucratic
control and clan control
· Peter Senge
· The Fifth Discipline
· Learning organization
· Systems Thinking
· David L. Cooperrider and Diana Whitney
· Authored “Appreciative Inquiry: A Positive Revolution in
Change
· Edgar Schein
· Developed Model of Organizational Culture
· Career Anchors
· Joann Martin
· Organization Culture: Mapping the Terrain (Foundations for
Organizational Science)
School of Thought: Theories of Organizational and
Environments

10. (Dominated Organizational Theory in 1966-67) Introduced Open
Systems versus Closed Systems and Systems Thinking based on
Von Bertalanffy’s general systems theory. Tools to
accommodate systems theory include computers, models and
teams.
Theorists:
· Daniel Katz & Robert Kahn
· Developed framework for open-systems theory that merged the
classical, neoclassical, human relations, modern structural and
systems perspective.
· Co-Authored “The Social Psychology of Organizations”
· James Thompson
· Theory of Complex organizations – look at individual
behavior to explain the nature of organizations.
· Published “Organizations in Action: Social Science Bases of
Administrative Theory
· Founder and Editor of Administrative Science Quarterly
· John Meyer and Brian Rowen
· Proposed the formal organization as a system or systems with
coordinated and controlled activities that come about when
work is embedded in complex networks of relations and
boundary-spanning exchanges.
· Co-Authored Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure
as Myth and Ceremony
· Jeffrey Pfeffer & Gerald Salancik
· Known for work on organizational decision making
· Proposed a resource dependent perspective on external
controls of organizations in which organizations should viewed
in terms of an interdependence with their environment.
· Co-Authored “The External Control of Organizations”
· Glenn Carroll & Michael Hannan
· Move beyond a prototypical approach to one of a social and
economic setting in which diversity of organizations was
primary.
· Co-Published: The Demography of Corporations and

11. Industries
School of Thought: Contemporary Schools of Management
Thought
(modern day approaches to management that offer more insight
than theory). Publications are readily available in bookstores.
Led managers to change the way they think of their jobs and the
way they treat and utilize workers.
Theorists:
· Peter Drucker
· Founder of Modern Management
· Management by Objectives and Self-Control
· Knowledge Worker
· Chris Argyris
· Theories of action
· Double-loop learning
· Organizational learning and its impact on company growth,
effectiveness and adaptability
· Peter Senge
· The Fifth Discipline
· Learning organization
· Systems thinking applied to organizational change and
economics
· Studied decentralization of leadership in organizations to
increase productivity and to build more sustainable
organizations.
· Victor Harold Vroom
· Expectancy Theory of Motivation
· Job satisfaction
· Authored ”Work and Motivation, Leadership and Decision
Making
· Authored “The New Leadership
· Ken Blanchard
· Wrote about a wide range of management topics including
empowerment, positive relationships, leadership, performance
teams, high power organizations, and the need for a leader to

12. have a vision.
· Authored “The New One Minute Manager”
· Authored “Leadership and the One Minute Manager”
· Blanchard-Mouton Management Grid
· Tom Peters
· Took management from the book to the classroom
· Focused on the softer side of management.
· Organizational change
· Transformational leadership
· Coauthored “In Search of Excellence”