Are Classical Approaches to Organizational Behavior Relevant in Today

Growth and change in nature and structure of organizations have made the ability of management to develop new approaches vital. Since the end of 19th century the conception of an organization has evolved and altered into various forms. When discussing classical management models, it is of great importance to take into consideration that they originated in past, not current economic and social conditions. Therefore, implementing a clear classical approach could hardly lead to anything else but the reasons for the necessity of its very change in the past. On the other hand, modern management models are a result of decades long development in the management practice. Understanding the basic models they originated from makes a manager more flexible.

They are not outdated

What is most informative about management theories is not what the specificities of each one is, but how they changed in time – which aspects of them stayed and which needed to be improved; how each contributed towards the development and better efficiency of the organizations.

In order to understand the importance of classical approaches, we should think of the conditions that made them necessary. Early classic writers had a difficult task to establish and develop some of the first massive productions in the history. Apart from establishing their structure, they had to think of a way to improve and grow them. The end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century was marked by rapid industrial growth, technological progress and urbanization process. The factories would give work to numerous people, some of which with no education and no qualification. How could all these people be organized and the outcomes of their work maximized if not rationalizing the working process into simple repetitive tasks each worker could easily learn to do? And so, the rapid growth of the organizations was one of the main reasons for the necessity of clear, scientific approaches to