Page 37 - DMGT402_MANAGEMENT_PRACTICES_AND_ORGANIZATIONAL_BEHAVIOUR

Management Practices and Organisational Behaviour

Notes 2.1.5 Criticisms of the Classical Theory

The classical theory suffers from various limitations. It was put under serious criticisms in the
first half of the nineteenth century by the neoclassical thinkers and others. The criticisms are
mainly based on the following grounds:
1. Certain Assumptions are Unrealistic: The classical theory is based on certain assumptions.
These assumptions were found unrealistic and hence not applicable to organisations at a
later date. The wrong assumptions, found unrealistic are:
(a) Close system assumption: The classical theorists viewed the organisation as a closed
system, i.e., it has no environment and hence no interaction with the outside world.
They felt that the organisation structure could be created as a house, i.e., step by step.
They thought, once the organisation is created, it would run smoothly and efficiently
because human beings are rational and they work more for economic rewards. In
this way, the model fails to consider many environmental factors which influence
upon the organisation and, thus, this assumption leads to incomplete view of actual
organisational situations.
(b) Static view of the organisation: The classicists took a rigid and static view of the
organisation whereas an organisation is not static but dynamic. The organisation
can instantly respond to changes in the environment and adjust accordingly. The
environment influences the organisation and is influenced by it. The organisation
imports inputs, transforms them and then export outputs to the environment. The
adjustments are necessary keeping in view the requirements of the organisational
environment and its various internal parts. Thus, the best organisational pattern
should meet the external and internal requirements and these requirements are
ever-changing and dynamic.
(c) Unrealistic assumptions about human behaviour: A major criticism of the classical theory
is that the assumption regarding human behaviour was quite unrealistic. Human
behaviour is complex in nature and not as simple as was established by the classical
theorists. They lack sensibility to the behavioural dimensions of an organisation
and make over-simplified and mechanistic assumptions for the smooth running of
the organisation, ignoring all complexities of human behaviour at work. They
assumed human beings as inert machines who perform tasks assigned to them and
ignored their social, psychological and motivational aspects of human behaviour.
This assumption of classical behaviourists led the workers to frustration, conflict
and failure and thus subordinates man to the organisation.
Human nature under this theory was also wrongly predicted; Mason Haire observed
that “there are implicit assumptions about man on which classical organisation
theory seems to me to be based. He is lazy, short-sighted, selfish, liable to make
mistakes, has poor judgement and may even be little dishonest.”

(d) Economic rewards are main motivators: The assumption that people at work can be
motivated solely through economic rewards is wrong. Several researches in human
behaviour have contradicted this assumption. Hawthorne Experiments brought seven
facts to light about several other motivational and maintenance factors that motivate
people at work. Such other factors may be formation of informal groups, emergence
of leaders beyond the chain of commands, improvement in productivity linked
with better status and job enrichment, etc.

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