What is Chester Barnard's theory?

Chester Barnard began writing "The Roles of the Executive" at a time when the ideas of Hawthorne's experiment were spreading and beginning to conflict with classical management theory.

Barnard tried a synthesis in vain. For the development of his ideas, his contact with LJ was important. Henderson, who at the time publicized Pareto's sociology. In addition, Mayo and the Harvard intellectuals, who lived with him, provided him with the contribution of the study of human motivation.

Harvard published in 1968 a new edition of "The Roles of the Executive" in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of this memorable book. In an excellent introduction, Kenneth Andrews of Harvard presents an outline of Barnard's personality and thinking.

Who was Chester Barnard?

Chester Barnard (1886-1961) left two books of which the first is his masterpiece, "The Functions of the Executive" (Harvard University Press, 1938) and the second,

"Organization and management" (Harvard University Press, 1948), constitutes a collection of various essays published 10 years after developing the themes of the previous book.

Despite the depth of his work, Barnard he was a practical executive and an amateur academic. His tough style, in many obscure ways, doesn't qualify him as a good writer. Educated at Harvard, he spent nearly 40 years pursuing a career at American Telephone and Telegraph (ATT), from an employee of the Department of Statistics to president of the Bell Telephone Company of New Sweater.

It was not related to the Hawthorne experiment, which was carried out at another company in the group, the Western Electric Company of Chicago, but lived with Elton Mayo, Whitehead, Roethlisberger and other important figures from the School of Human Relations.

In addition to being an ATT executive, Barnard served in various public functions, including president of the United Services Organization (USO) during World War II; Chief of the General Education Council, President of the Rockefeller Foundation, President of the National Science Foundation, Assistant to the Secretary of the Treasury. In addition, she was very fond of music, being one of the founders of the Bach Society of New Jersey.

The functions of the executive

In the preface to the book, Barnard proposes to present a theory of cooperation in the formal organization. Cooperation arises from an individual need to fulfill the purposes of a changing system, in which various biological, psychological and social elements are combined. The executive must be effective (achieve the purposes of the organization) and efficient (satisfy his individual motives) to survive in that system.

The organization is seen as a "system of consciously coordinated activities of two or more people." Therefore, cooperation is essential for the survival of the organization. The "function of the executive" consists of the ability to make decisions that give quality and morality to the coordination of organized activity.

Writing this at a time when the subject of human relations was becoming controversial with the Classical School, Barnard contributed to construct a new and different theory of organization than Fayol's, who did not arrive in time to see the result of the experiment of Hawthorne. and that it did not address the psychological factors of cooperation.

For Barnard, an organization exists when:

1. There are people capable of communicating with each other
2. They are willing to contribute to action to fulfill a common purpose.

The willingness to contribute to action means the willingness to sacrifice control of one's behavior for the benefit of coordination. This willingness to trust the organization varies from one individual to another, so the contribution system total is unstable, since it is the result of the satisfactions and dissatisfactions obtained or perceived by the people.

All organizations have a purpose, but it does not produce cooperation unless it is accepted by the participants. In addition to its objective aspect, purpose has a subjective meaning for each person. One of the "executive functions" is instill belief in the real existence of common purpose. The continuity of an organization depends not only on this executive ability to propagate the purpose, but also on the ability to review and renew the purpose.

Another "executive function" is communication, linking purpose with the individual's willingness to cooperate. Communication translates purpose into action. Barnard, based on Hawthorne's findings, indicates that communication is not just written language and spoken, but "observation sensitivity", which would be the ability to understand situations and intentions without words. This feeling develops with experience and training.

Barnard's top three responsibilities

1) Develop and maintain a communication system with the informal organization, as a strategy to enable the effectiveness of the formal organization. In summary: The manager must be attentive to the informal language of the company and design a simple communication system that everyone understands and engages.

2) Ensure the willingness to collaborate with competent people and, subsequently, guarantee their performance.

3) Formulate and define the purposes, objectives and purposes of the organization, which includes indoctrinating operational employees with general purposes and important decisions, so that they remain cohesive and can make final decisions, detailed and in a coherent.

Last chapter

The last chapter is devoted to the nature of executive responsibility. All elements of management are meaningless without the moral factor that has its expression in leadership. The leadership it is conceived as the power that individuals have to inspire cooperation through faith in common understanding, the possibility of success, and the satisfaction of individual motives.

As a theory builder, it is difficult to distinguish in Barnard when he invents and adapts the concept of others. Taking the concept of organization as a social system (Mayo, Rothlisberger), elaborated on the concepts of formal and informal organization, Barnard establishes a difference between effectiveness and efficiency, incorporates non-economic motivation into incentive theory, and develops the concept of authority. "Authority is the character of communication in a formal organization by virtue of which it is accepted as something that governs your action as a member of the organization".

Barnard considers one of the "executive functions" to define organizational purpose. Such a definition gives meaning to things and unifies people. In addition, this writer defined the concepts of structure and dynamics of the organization. The structural concepts are those of the individual, cooperative system, formal organization and informal organization. Dynamic concepts are will, cooperation, communication, authority, decision-making, and dynamic balance.