What Are Administrative Theories Good For?

Administration is one of the most important activities of today, this is because, through this activity, great things can be achieved; A clear example of this is the technological development that has occurred in recent years, which has allowed humanity to advance a lot, however, what many do not know, is that behind these advances, there are many administrative processes, which they make new discoveries and their acceptance possible.

As a result of the importance of administration today, many things have been developed around them, administrative theories being one of the most interesting; It can be said that administrative theories are all those theories that are developed focused on a specific area or in general, to try to determine what changes negatively or positively affect administration processes, in addition, they also serve to try to adapt administrative processes to the socio-political changes that occur in general.

What is the function of administrative theories?

Administrative theories are used by many people in different areas today, due to the large number of benefits it can bring, among which the following can be mentioned:

Improve the performance of people who belong to an organization

Some of the administrative theories that exist, aim to improve the performance of the people who are within an organization (when saying organization, it refers to any group that needs administrative processes to have a correct operation).

This is achieved through the use of a series of steps and rules, such as: planning, preparation, control and execution. Although this is something that can vary, depending on the administrative theory that is applied, since there are many and each one, it has a different objective.

Improve the performance of administrative processes in general

Administrative processes generally have the objective of evaluating, planning, executing, storing data, among other things. All these processes require a certain time, which may vary depending on the area where it is being applied.

These processes can be improved when classifying them or adding other processes that help increase their efficiency.

It helps to apply new techniques that allow to improve everything in general

Many theories seek to add new areas, techniques or procedures, with the aim of improving the procedures of an organization as such; therefore, technical theories are of great help, if what you want is to implement new things in the organization, so that its general efficiency can be raised considerably.

Ideal for increasing the order within an organization

Order is one of the most fundamental things in any organization; and the administration in general, allows to have an order above all, however, when applying certain theories, in certain organizations, this order can be increased considerably, this due to different factors, such as:

• There are theories, which add more administrative areas, to prevent information from being lost or confused.
• There are theories, which help the transfer of information to be efficient.
• Among the theories that exist, there are some that help prevent typical problems from arising.

It serves to adapt an organization to social and political changes

Social and political changes can negatively affect the efficiency or the way an organization works, and in these cases, it is essential to have good administrative processes that allow the organization to adapt to these changes.

A clear example of this is when countries regulate the time that employees must work for a certain time, it is at this point, where the humanistic administrative theory appears, where it arises, that by satisfying the needs of the worker, it is possible to obtain greater efficiency from it, despite the fact that he spends fewer hours at work or has more days off per week.

What are the administrative theories? Classical theories of management

There are many administrative theories, however, there are some that stand out, due to the great popularity they have or the efficiency they promise. Said theories are the following:

Mathematical theory

It is based on numbers for decision making, and basically, what is done in this theory is the following: evaluate the area where the problem is, then study the problem as such; Depending on the data obtained, a decision is made, based on the numbers obtained from the studies previously carried out.

This theory was proposed by: Mongesntem, Von Neumann and Herbert Simon. Although throughout history, it has been improved and slightly changed by other people.

Classical theory

This theory was born due to the need to take into account the employees of the organization, because theories such as the scientific one, simply sought to increase efficiency, without taking into account the emotions and general well-being of people.

This theory proposes dividing all activities, as follows:

• Technical area : is the area in charge of producing the product or performing the service.

• Administrative : it is the area in charge of all administrative processes in general (all areas are directly related to it).

• Commercial area : it is in charge of controlling all sales and purchases of the organization.

• Accounting area : it is in charge of taking charge of all financial processes (capital administration).

• Security area : it is in charge of taking care of the employees and the assets of the organization.

It is important to highlight two things: the first is that all areas are related to each other, and the second is that the one who is considered the father of this theory is Henry Fayol.

Scientific theory

It can be considered as one of the first theories that arose in the area of ​​administration (it was even as a result of this, that the classical theory was born). The main objective of this theory was to increase efficiency and for this, the following steps should be taken into account:

• Planning .
• Preparation .
• Control.
• Execution .

To apply the steps mentioned above, many things applied in science had to be taken into account, such as observation and experimentation.

The parents of this theory are: Henry L. Gantt, William Gilbreth and Frank.

Bureaucratic theory

It seeks to integrate routines, procedures, hierarchies, rules, regulations, division of work, and also always seeks to take into account the well-being of the members of the organization, in order to have control over everything and good efficiency as a result of motivation; and not an obligation.

The representative of this theory is Max Weber.

Humanistic theory

What this theory seeks is to motivate the employee, so that he is much more efficient in his work area; For this, it seeks to implement in the work area, things such as: rewards, delegation, hierarchies, sanctions, autonomy to the worker, among other things. All this, so that your comfort and satisfaction increase; and with it, its efficiency within the organization.

The person who made this theory known was Elton Mayo.

Contingency theory

The main objective of this theory is to make that all areas of an organization can be adapted with relative ease to changes, this with the aim that when problems appear, everything can be easily adapted and there are no problems that can cause great damage to the organization.

The representatives of this theory are: Tom Burns, William Dill, James Thompson, Paul Lawrence and Jay Lorsch.

General management theory

What is sought in this theory is to carry out a general study of the organization (regardless of its focus), to know aspects such as: focus, product, structure, personnel, technology it has, environment, competitiveness. All this, in order to determine what administrative processes are needed; or in which administrative processes should be improved, to increase the efficiency of the organization as such.

Conclusion: Can administrative theories be considered important?

All administrative processes in general are of the utmost importance for any organization, therefore, it can be said that administrative theories can be used very well, as long as they are applied correctly to the area where they wish to apply, in addition, they should always be Remember that on many occasions, certain theories cannot be applied to certain areas, therefore, first of all, a study must first be carried out, to determine which theories is the one that best suits the area to be improved.