Page 21 - DLIS003_LIBRARY ADMINISTRATION AND MANAGEMENT

Library Administration and Management

Notes movement. We can get the flavour of these developments by looking briefly at the emergence
of industrial psychology, the growth of personnel management, and the development of a
sociological approach to human relations and management.
In determining that the task of executives (by which he meant all kinds of managers) was one of
maintaining a system of cooperative effort in a formal organization, Barnard addressed himself
first to the reasons for, and the nature of, cooperative systems. The logic of his analysis can be
seen in the following steps:

1. Physical and biological limitations of individuals lead them to cooperate, to work in
groups; while the basic limitations are physical and biological, once people cooperate,
psychological and social limitations of individuals also play a part in inducing cooperation.
2. The act of cooperation leads to the establishment of a cooperative system in which physical,
biological, personal, and social factors or elements are present. He also makes the point
that the continuation of cooperation depends on effectiveness (does it accomplish the
cooperative purpose?) and efficiency (does it accomplish the purpose with a minimum of
dissatisfaction and costs to cooperating members?).
3. Any cooperative system may be divided into two parts: “organization” which includes
only the interactions of people in the system, and other elements.
4. Organizations can in turn be divided into two kinds: the “formal” organisation which is
that set of consciously coordinated social interactions that have a deliberate and joint
purpose, and the “informal” organization which refers to those social interactions without
a common or consciously coordinated joint purpose.

5. The formal organization cannot exist unless there are persons who (a) are able to
communicate with one another, (b) are willing to contribute to group action, and (c) have
a conscious common purpose.
6. Every formal organisation must include the following elements:(a) a system of
functionalization so that people can specialize (that is, various forms of
departmentalisation), (b) a system of effective and efficient incentives that will induce
people to contribute to group action, (c) a system of power (authority) which will lead
group members to accept the decisions of executives, and (d) a system of logical decision
making.

7. The executive functions enter the process through the work of the executive in integrating
the whole and in finding the best balance between conflicting forces and events.
8. To make the executive effective requires a high order of responsible leadership; as Barnard
so well emphasizes, “Cooperation”, not leadership, is the creative process; but leadership
is the indispensable fulminator of its forces.

Barnard’s thesis is a social systems approach, concentrating on major elements of the managerial
job, containing extraordinary insights on decision making and leadership.

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:

9. ….................... and responsibility go together or co-existing.
10. The …………………….. is a chain of supervisors from the highest to the lowest rank.
It should be short-circuited.

11. ………………………. is a social systems approach, concentrating on major elements of the
managerial job, containing extraordinary insights on decision making and leadership.

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