Traditional Management Theory Thrust Forward Taylor’s The Principles of Scientific Management (1911) was based on measurements of work processes and outcomes. The application of his principles would lead managers and workers to the best conditions under which to create and nurture business. The concepts were adapted to fit government and were used to test, promote, create position descriptions, record employee evaluations, etc. In 1937 Gulick proposed his own framework of applying scientific management to government and created the acronym POSDCORB (Planning, Organizing, Staffing, Directing, Coordinating, Reporting, Budgeting) to reflect the seven major functions of management (Gulick, 1937 in Frederickson et al, 2012) which served as the standard through the late 1950’s.
In 1938 Chester Barnard identified and set forth the acceptance theory of authority which discussed that authority is more about those that accept the authority of another over others than it is in naming an authoritative person and hence the attention given. He described the power present at the bottom of the hierarchical model, and promoted the functions of the executive having less to do with administration and more to do with securing cooperative efforts from employees through feedback, a traditional
communications model (Frederickson et al, 2012).