Chester Barnard’s Management Theory Essay

Management has been in our business culture many years. Ideas of management from the past are applicable to management practices today. In today’s society, managers are seen as a ruling authority that get their jobs done through other people; their employees. Most of the time there is a lack of communication between the managers and their employees resulting in conflicts that may place their company at high risk of failure. Leading and motivating should be the top priorities of a manager. Motivating includes communicating with your employees, dealing and solving problems and encouraging them to do their job to be successful in today’s management business. This all leads us to Chester Barnard’s management theory and his belief of the role of effectiveness within management. Chester Barnard was born in 1886 and died in 1961. He attended Mount Hermon Prep School and later enrolled at Harvard University. While at his position as a telecommunications executive, Bernard was influenced by Walter Gifford, Harvard President A. Lawrence Lowell, Donham. At that time, Chester was president of the New Jersey Bell Telephone Company. In his time he was known for publishing an article on ‘The Functions of the Executive in 1938’ which was an influential 20th century management book. In this article he helped advance thinking about organizations that later on contributed to the management theory. He created two theories which are Theory of Organization and Concept of Authority. â€Å"Authority is the character of a communication in a formal organization by virtue of which it is accepted by a contributor to or ‘member’ of the organization as governing the action he contributes; that is as governing or determining what he does or is not to do so far as the organization is concerned. †