Chester Irving Barnard (1886–1961) was a telecommunications executive and author of Functions of the Executive, an influential 20th century management book, in which Barnard presented a theory of organization and the functions of executives in organizations. 1886 is a common year starting on Friday (click on link to calendar) Events January 18 _ Modern field hockey is born with the formation of The Hockey Association in England. ... 1961 was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Telecommunication is the extension of communication over a distance. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the...
His most notable work is the development of the Acceptance Theory of Authority which states that managers only have as much authority as they are given by their workers. Thus managers should treat workers respectfully and obtain authority. Managers, thus, should be people of higher intelligence and be better than normal workers. This theory takes the socialist perspective, like that of Mary Follett, and unlike most managment theories of the time. Mary Parker Follett (1868–1933) worked as a management and political theorist, introducing such phrases as conflict resolution, authority and power, and the task of leadership. Mary Parker Follet made important contributions to the field of human resource management. ...
He emphasised the concept of communication and laid down a few rules:
Everyone should know of the channels of communication
Everyone should have access to the formal channels of communication
Lines of communication should be as short and as direct as possible
He also started the concept of strategic planning by stating that organizations should plan, make goals and stick to them. He is said to have coined the word efficiency in its modern management meaning - the output per unit of input.
Barnard was the President of New Jersey Bell Telephone and the Rockefeller Foundation and not, strictly speaking, an 'academic'.
The key constructs and the underlying principles for Barnard's functions of the "executive" and organization as a cooperative open-system are reassessed for the evolving knowledge-driven firm competing in the twenty-first century global economy.
Barnard was misled by the ideology of the Harvard human relations group to underestimate the importance of power and money, an underestimation that may still be important today, given his continuing influence.
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