Theorists & Theories

Theorists

• Adam Smith

  Adam Smith was a Scottish social philosopher and a political economist.
• Elton Mayo

  Elton Mayo was a psychologist who became an early leader in the field of industrial sociology in the United States, emphasizing the dependence of productivity on small-group unity.
• Fredrick W. Taylor

  Fredrick W. Taylor is known as the father of scientific management. His system of industrial management has influenced the development of virtually every county enjoying the benefits of modern industry.
• Mary Parker Follett

  Mary Parker Follett was an American author and sociologist who was a pioneer in the study of interpersonal relations and personnel management.
• Max Weber

  Max Weber was a German sociologist and political economist best known for his thesis of the “Protestant ethics,” relating Protestantism to capitalism, and for his ideas on bureaucracy.

Theories

• Administrative Law

  Administrative law, the legal framework within which public administration is carried out. It derives from the need to create and develop a system of public administration under law, a concept that may be compared with the much older notion of justice under law.
• Formal Organization

  Formal organization, component of an organization’s social structure designed to guide and constrain the behavior of the organization members.
• The Hawthorne Effect

  The Hawthorne Effect was a socioeconomic experiment conducted by Elton Mayo in 1927, among employees of the Hawthorne Works Factory.
• Human Resources Management

  The management of the people in working organizations.
• Industrial or Organizational Relations

  Scholars of industrial relations attempt to explain variations in the conditions of work, the degree and nature of worker participation in decision making, the role of labor unions and other forms of worker representation, and the patterns of cooperation and conflict resolution that occur among workers and employers.
• Informal Organization

  Informal organization, the manner in which an organization operates in reality, as opposed to its formal distribution of roles and responsibilities.
• Organizational Analysis

  Organizational analysis is the study of the processes that characterize all kinds of organizations, including business firms, government agencies, labor unions, and voluntary associations such as sports clubs, charities, and political parties.