When1: 1938
Who: Chester I. Barnard [Barnard, Chester I.]
What: businessman
Where: USA
works\ Functions of the Executive [1938]
Detail: He lived 1886 to 1961 and wrote about the ideal administrator. Good administration depends on analysis, authority, communication, decision-making, expansion, goals, motivation, and purpose.
Business analysis requires looking for process critical, limiting, and strategic factors and making decisions to address these factors. Then further analysis finds new critical, limiting, and strategic factors. Good analysis uses past experience, connects decisions, analyzes decision-making process itself, and facilitates limiting options.
To have authority to lead, executive must be moral and qualified. Authority depends on subordinate acceptance of executive. The moral code defines authority levels, emphasizes loyalty to organization purposes, and sets goal to strive for excellence.
Communication is official, is only for employees, comes from communication center through accepted channels, goes through all proper stages, preferably only one stage, comes from authority, is authenticatable, and comes from someone responsible.
Executive decisions mostly limit choices. Consequence anticipations and results after previous actions limit choices. High-level decisions involve purposes and personnel. Middle-level decisions involve technical, economic, and social problems. Low-level decisions involve means to ends. Executives can protect themselves against decision criticism, by documentation and superiors' approval. Executives can ensure that authorities make decisions and take responsibility.
Organization must expand to gain more incentives for workers.
Organization has two main goals, which executive leads and to which organization adapts. The first goal is to reach organization purpose. The second goal is to motivate individuals. Meeting both goals requires willingness to cooperate among all employees, communication between all employees, and accepted purpose for organization. Purpose must be relevant to customers or environment, be attainable given resources and people, and fit with employee desires and hopes. Executive can motivate by distributing rewards in the most-efficient way, based on people's powers, wishes, needs, and abilities, to keep people satisfied. Direct incentives alone are not enough to satisfy employees. Propaganda, education, and training can persuade people. Technology, education, and opportunities to do more are other rewards. Executive must remember that people can always think about doing something else instead. Social relations can contribute to success but must be compatible with organization purposes.
As for motivation, best results happen if people have high pay and then give full value in return. Return value typically seems small to person giving it.
Purposes about family, religion, or country are personal, but business purposes are impersonal. All intentions, acts, and ideas communicate business purposes, to persuade people to accept them. Business purpose has parts that specialists can do, by place, time, other people required, resources, and methods.
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Date Modified: 2022.0224