Harvard University has some aspects of Weber’s classical bureaucracy theory in its management. To start with, is the element of hierarchy of Authority where by its management is organized from the top management level to lower management level (Tompkins, 2005). Information flows right from the top of the management to subordinates. This is to imply that there is supervision of lower office by higher office just as Weber’s classical bureaucracy theory provides. In addition, there is an element of division of labor in the organization of Harvard University. The management of Harvard University is divided into various departments. It is within these departments where the element of division of labor arises. Labor in each department is based on specialization of roles for instance; people working in the finance department are specialist in finance and same to the rest of the departments. This is in line with the provisions of Weber’s classical bureaucracy which advocates for the division of labor. These two aspects of Weber’s classical bureaucracy are also evident in University of California at Berkeley.
On the other hand, with relevance to scientific management theory of Fredric Taylor, Both Harvard University and University of California at Berkeley practice task specialization. Every worker has been assigned a department which matches with his or her area of specialization. The reason behind this aspect is to foster work efficiency. These Universities managements have been divided into departments and each department has been assigned workers who have skills and knowledge they require. Taylor advocates for the same arguing that specialization enhances performance efficiency of an organization (Tompkins, 2005).
Finally, both the Universities utilize centralized planning and control in their management. Each department holds meetings and comes up with its plans and ways of controlling their activities. Following this, the heads from each department meet and come up with final plans and control mechanisms for the University. Nevertheless, every head of the department acts as a supervisor of entire group of his or her department. The main task as the supervisor is providing the workers with instructions on how to implement the laid plans and control system. This aspect is in line with Fredric Taylor provisions in his theory of scientific management. He believes that to ensure efficiency, then there should be centralized planning and control where experts are the ones who take place in this exercise (Tompkins, 2005).
References
Tompkins, J. (2005). Organization theory and public management. Australia: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning.
