Essay on Contingency Theory
Henri Fayol’s Contributions
Management style that changes according to the situation, and the type of decision to be made between autocratic, consultative, democratic and other styles. See also contingency school of management. Contingency theory is a behavioral theory that claims that there is no single best way to design organizational structures. The best way of organizing e. g. a company, is, however, contingent upon the internal and external situation of the company.
The contingency approach to organizational design tailors the design of the company to the sources of environmental uncertainties faced by the organization. The point is to design an organizational structure that can handle uncertainties in the environment effectively and efficiently. Therefore, previous theories such as Weber's theory of bureaucracy and Taylor's scientific management approach sometimes fail because they neglect that effective management styles and organizational structures are influenced by various aspects of the environment: the contingency factors.
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Therefore, there can not be ONE optimal organizational design for every company, because no companies are completely similar, and because every company faces its own set of unique environmental contingencies that result in different levels of environmental uncertainties. Contingency theory has historically sought to develop generalizations about the formal structures that would fit the use of different technologies. This focus was put forward by Joan Woodward (1958), who argued that technologies directly determine organizational attributes such as p of control, centralization of authority, and the formalization of rules and procedures.
Max Weber’s Contributions
Weber developed a theory of authority structures and described organizational activity on the basis of authority relations. He described an ideal type of organization that he called a bureaucracy, characterized by division of labor, a clearly defined hierarchy, detailed rules and regulations, and impersonal relationships.
- Division of labor
- Authority hierarchy
- Formal selection
- Formal rules and regulations
- Impersonality
- Career orientation
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Essay on Contingency Theory. (2017, Dec 13). Retrieved from https://phdessay.com/contingency-theory-146083/
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