These principles are basic to both centralized bureaucracy (illustrated in Exhibit 2.3) and
the modified form found in the divisionalized organization, where various units are
allowed to operate in a semiautonomous manner under general rather than detailed
supervision and the control of those with ultimate authority. Just as the military
introduced decentralization to cope with difficult combat situations, the classical
management theorists recognized the necessity of reconciling the contrary requirements
of centralization and decentralization to preserve an appropriate flexibility in different
parts of large organizations.
The ability to achieve this kind of decentralization has been greatly advanced during
the course of the twentieth century through the development of management techniques
like MBO and PPBS and the design of sophisticated management information systems
(US), which are often used to establish the kinds of "topdown" control advocated by the
classical theorists. For example, forms of MBO are often used to impose a mechanistic
system of goals and objectives on an organization. These are then used to control the
direction in which managers and employees can take the organizationfor example,
through the development of performance targets consistent with these goals and various
budgetary systems. Computerized information systems now allow performance to be
subjected to almost complete surveillance and control.
In this way, the ideas of the classical management theorists are reinforced under the
guise of modern management. This often occurs because the people designing these
management systems have come to think about organization mechanistically and are
unaware of other ways in which these techniques could be usedfor example, to promote
the kind of organizational learning and inquiry discussed in Chapter 4, or the participative
corporate cultures or systems of organizational democracy discussed in Chapters 5 and 6.
The whole thrust of classical management theory and its modern application is to suggest
that organizations can or should be rational systems that operate in as efficient a manner
as possible. While many will endorse this as an ideal, it is easier said than done, because
we are dealing with people, not inanimate cogs and wheels.
In this regard it is significant that the classical theorists gave relatively little attention
to the human aspects of organization. Although they frequently recognized the need for
leadership, initiative, benevolence, equity, esprit de corps, and other factors that might
influence human motivation, organization as such was mainly understood as a technical
problem. The classical theorists recognized that it was important to achieve a balance or
harmony between the human and technical aspects, especially through appropriate
selection and training procedures, but their main orientation was to make humans fit the
requirements of mechanical organization.
For this they have been much criticized. Yet modern managers and management
consultants often continue to introduce the same bias into their way of thinking. The most
recent example is found in the "reengineering movement" that swept across North
America and much of Europe in the 1990s. Recognizing that the bureaucratic form of
organization with its emphasis on rigid departmentation had outlived its usefulness, the
reengineering movement urged a new mechanistic design, building around key business