The contributions of Chester Barnard to strategic management theory

McMahon, Dave; Carr, Jon C.

doi:10.1108/13552529910282222

Cited by 29 publications

(26 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…Therefore, any attempts to adapt or reformulate Gulick's principles are of relevance for present day management theory. The same argument on the contemporary relevance of the ideas of pioneers in management theory would apply to Chester Barnard's writings on organisations (McMahon and Carr, 1999).…”

Section: The Continuing Influence Of Gulick's Administrative Principlesmentioning

confidence: 88%

Conceptualising the nature of work: revisiting Luther Gulick's theories of organisation

Breese

2013

Journal of Management History

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If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -The aim of this paper is to evaluate the coherence of Gulick's ideas on the nature of work roles and the implications for organisational theory. Design/methodology/approach -An analysis is undertaken of Gulick's writings in the "Papers on the Science of Administration", on different ways of organising (for which the author has used the term "systems of organisation") and similar work by his contemporaries, including Chester Barnard. The subsequent critique of Gulick's ideas by Herbert Simon is evaluated. Gulick's ideas are then compared with a theoretical framework developed by the author, which covers similar ground to the systems of organisation.Findings -The paper argues that Gulick's ideas on the nature of work roles in his systems of organisation were an important, but flawed contribution to organisational theory. Shortcomings in Gulick's theories on systems of organisation are identified, which, when rectified, improve the coherence of the theories and address legitimate criticisms made by Herbert Simon.Research limitations/implications -The article has important implications for contemporary interpretations of the intellectual clash between Gulick and Simon, and the relevance of Gulick's ideas for contemporary management research. Practical implications -The article has implications for the theoretical perspectives which are brought to bear on how organisations conceptualise their work tasks and organise themselves accordingly. Originality/value -The paper subjects one of the central elements of Gulick's principles of administration to in-depth critique at a conceptual level in order to re-evaluate its worth and contemporary relevance.

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Section: The Continuing Influence Of Gulick's Administrative Principlesmentioning

confidence: 88%

Conceptualising the nature of work: revisiting Luther Gulick's theories of organisation

Breese

2013

Journal of Management History

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“…McMahon and Carr (1999), who are of the opinion that the current generation of students are reading less of the actual writings of the early scholars and more of what current authors attribute to those early scholars.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This observation supports the view of Parker and Ritson (2005), who point out the susceptibility of the management discipline to fads and willingness to accept contradictions that other scientific disciplines would deem intolerable. This shortcoming is compounded by the current generation of students who read less of the actual writings of the early scholars and more of what is attributed to them by current texts (McMahon and Carr, 1999). This may lead to the early authors being misinterpreted (Gibreth, 1914).…”

Section: A Long History Of Management and Leadership But No Claritymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Generally, the contemporary use of the word "manager" coincides with the linguistic development of the term, which also corresponds with its historic development. Since the appearance of the first publication on management in 1825, a number of management scientists (Babbage, 1832;Barnard, 1938;Church and Alfred, 1912;Drucker, 1955;Follett, 1925 and1933a;Ghoshal, 2005;Gilbreth, 1914;Gilbreth, 1922;Humphreys and Einstein, 2000;Koontz and Weihrich, 1988;McGregor, 1966a and b;McMahon and Carr, 1999;O"Connor, 2000;Owen, 1825;Reese and Porter, 2008;Sheldon, 1923;Simon, 1962;Taylor, 1911;Wren, 2005) have pointed out that management requires special skills to deal with individuals who have a will of their own. The latter should be treated as mature adults who can make a contribution to the organisation, rather than trying to drive them by fear, as businesspeople did in the pre-Renaissance era.…”

Section: A Long History Of Management and Leadership But No Claritymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Conceptualisation of management and leadership

Nienaber

2010

Management Decision

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“…The ever changing nature of the external environment may transform the purpose of the firm and the environment in which it operates (McMahon & Carr, 1999). Organizations may set targets, negotiate and agree on performance indicators for execution in order to achieve superior performance.…”

Section: External Environmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Does External Environment Influence Organizational Performance? The Case of Kenyan State Corporations

Njoroge¹,

Ongeti²,

Kinuu³

et al. 2016

MOS

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External environment's direct influence on organizational performance has not attracted as much scholarly attention as the strategic management practice. The main objective of the study was to establish the influence of external environment on performance of Kenyan State corporations. The three dimensions of external environment namely munificence, complexity and dynamism were used to measure the variable while performance was measured along all the indicators of the sustainable balanced score card. The study's population consisted of 108 Kenyan state corporations and data was collected from 98 organizations. The results revealed that all the hypotheses were supported. It was established that external environment had a positive significant influence on all the indicators of performance. It was evident from the findings that the effect of external environment on organizational performance, while conventionally thought to be negative, the research showed otherwise. It is most likely that Kenya state corporations have ensured a proper environmental scanning that has led to an accurate stakeholders mapping. The stakeholders mapping has most likely led to favorability of relationships hence the positive effect of external environment. External environment ought not to impact organizational performance negatively. Results also reveal that indeed the external environment has a direct relationship and influence on organizational performance. Industrial organization economics theory suggested the structure-conduct-performance paradigm which was later matched with strategic management's the environment-strategy-performance. The results of this study seem to allude to an environment-performance paradigm. More scholarly poking is therefore necessary to determine the extent to which the direct relationship exists.

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The contributions of Chester Barnard to strategic management theory

Cited by 29 publications

References 32 publications

Conceptualising the nature of work: revisiting Luther Gulick's theories of organisation

Conceptualising the nature of work: revisiting Luther Gulick's theories of organisation

Conceptualisation of management and leadership

Does External Environment Influence Organizational Performance? The Case of Kenyan State Corporations

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