Classical management at present

Classical management is a management approach based on an optimized solutions to the needs of the employees, management, consumers and other stakeholders. Many people mistakenly think that, unlike contemporary management styles, classical management do not account for the needs of the employees. I do not agree to this notion. Classical management is a productive management of the resources to get the desired goals in an organization.

The concept of classical management is applicable in the present age. There are still many organizations who use a management model in which the leadership functions to get the desired results by focusing on effective human resource management. Human resource management is an integral part of the overall resource management. When we talk about the effective management of human resource, it means that providing them with an optimal environment to work and fulfill their other needs based on the quality of the outputs they produce. The idea seems relevant not even today, but also in future. Employees of an organization have to be able to explore their strengths and weaknesses in order to reach organizational goals which present performance based rewards. These rewards can play an important role in motivating the employees.

There are many examples of companies heavily relying on classical management in the present age. China is a prime example of utilizing classical management. Chinese companies have a focus on productivity and an efficiency of its workers. They have specific authorities for specific management layers which makes it possible to make people accountable against their responsibilities.

A classical management approach does not mean an authoritative way of management. This approach calls for the delegation of authority to the people who are capable of making management decisions in the capacity of the authority they have been delegated. The top management shares responsibilities more than the lower management and other employees. For example, the previous CEO of Costco, Jim Sinegal used to be present on the retail floor and answer his own phone from there. This points to the fact that though, classical management may be demanding the full participation of the ordinary workforce, its application in the letter and spirit calls for the top management to also work hard side by side the employees.

Speaking of a reward system, it is an effective way of motivating the employees to perform their best. Nucor, which is a successful organization and is the largest steel producer in the US utilizes a reward system in which the ordinary employees have the opportunity to outperform the top management. There are some benefits that are only available to the employees and not the topo management.

The companies that utilize classical management have found a way to couple this management style with the organizational strategies in a productive way. These organization see productive use of the human resource as a prime source of their growth and long term strategies. The decline of classical management may not be due to its incompatibility with the current demands of organizational strategies and goal achievement. This decline may be due to a misunderstanding of the core values of classical management by focusing only on producing the desired goals by neglecting the needs and motivation of the human resource. Classical management can still be revived and can still produce the desired results as it did in the early 1900 in the case of Ford motors, but it needs to be understood and indigenized with the demands of the workforce of the present age.