Classical Management of the Future

The future of classical management lies in the evolution of the principles of classical management in accordance with the advancements of scientific approaches to the fields of management. The main objectives of classical management is to develop scientific means of selection and training of the employees. This is a way of bringing together scientific tools and a workplace closer. The future of classical management depends on how effectively scientific research is utilized to develop workplaces that not only focus on the productivity of the human resource, but also on the welfare of the workforce during their work. Classical approach is usually goal oriented and rewards the employees on the basis of their performance at the completion of the work.

Classical management may not be able to survive in its present farm. It would need to evolve as earlier mentioned. Neo-classical approaches are already taking over the classical ones. In the future, the basic ingredients of the classical management would change i.e. organizational focus would change from financial demands to emotional qualities of the workers, structure of the organization would be more social than mechanistic, organizational emphasis would change from discipline to personal security, goal of the employees would evolve from maximum achievement or organizational rewards to achievement of organizational goals, the concept about employees would convert to social beings instead of economic beings and the nature of the organization would become organistic instead of mechanistic (Nhema, 2015).

Management concepts and approaches are changing rapidly. Especially after the industrial revolution, due to a greater demand of productivity, industrial requirements have changed and so has the way people are managed. Since then, the business world have change. The concept of globalization has emerged. There are big companies like Shell, Coca Cola, Pepsi Cola, Walmart and many other that have multinational teams of employees. A multinational team is no more specific to big companies, small businesses with just a few employees may also employ people from different countries. In this scenario, using a strict classical management style with fixed responsibilities and bureaucratic attitude may not be feasible. New business and management ethics are introduced rapidly. A strict classical management business model may not have the capacity to adopt to these ethical advances. Therefore, the neo-classical model may be what people who already utilize the classical model may be what they need to adopt to as soon as possible.

Classical management approach has its own advantages and disadvantages but here we are talking about a dynamic business environment. The classical management does not look deep into the individual differences that exists in human beings. Modern management approaches would focus more on recognizing people as complex and variable beings rather than just a resource that can be manipulated with simple techniques like discipline and rewards. People have different talents and intellectual capabilities. A working environment that has the capacity to explore these capabilities and talents would be among the most successful. Thought classical management is efficient in increasing productivity in repetitive tasks, it may not be so useful, in its current form, in facilitating the employees to be creative and innovative. Classical management may still be a part of organizations whose aim to produce a huge amount of similar products in shorter amount of time. There could be a combination of new management approaches that facilitate innovation at some levels while manage employees with traditional techniques like classical management at other levels in action in the future.