Taylor's prescriptions for organizational structure were a radical departure from previous practices. Previously,
the military model of organization had prevailed stressing unity of command at each level of the organizational and culminating in a single executive body at the apex of an organization pyramid.
Under this arrangement, the foreman was responsible for a wide range of functions, including hiring, training, Supervising, and firing his subordinates, Foremen were often hired on a contract basis and simply charged with getting the work done, with little direction from management.
Taylor believed this arrangement to be deficient in two regards: first, it demanded an undue amount of technical expertise from top management ; second, it expected too much from the foreman and, as a result, effectively precluded direct control by management over the workers. Consequently, he proposes both a decentralization of authority from general management and a centralization of authority from the foreman the new locus of authority and responsibility is to be the planning department In the process, Taylor divides the tasks previously performed by the foreman, allocating them to a number of "functional foremen”
The decentralizing aspect of Taylor's functional organization is the establishment of a cadre of technical experts in positions of power organization. This power is not to be fixed at the top level of the organization but in a planning are to be not mere and authority the basis of from The experts in the P from above, organizational executives are to limit themselves to handling problems that cannot be handled in the planning depar executives are have a general knowledge of all the steps necenrad he accomplishment of organizational tasks,
and they are to sta the fitness of important men working under control for top executives is to be based