Classical Management Approach

THESE OOMPA, LOOMPAS from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory are responsible for rowing a boat down this chocolate-filled river and not much else!

In classic children’s novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Charlie, an impoverished youngster, wins a tour through the most magnificent chocolate factory in the world, run by the highly unusual candymaker Willy Wonka (portrayed in the 2005 film version by Johnny Depp). As Charlie tours the factory with a small group of other children, he sees an army of small men called Oompa Loompas. Each Oompa Looma is charged with performing a specific task: some do nothing but pour mysterious ingredients into giant, clanking candymaking machines; others focus on guiding the tour boats that ferry the children along rivers of sweet liquid. Still others work only on packing finished candies into boxes as the candies come off the assembly lines. You could almost compare the chocolate factory to a car and each worker to a specific part with a specific job—seat belt, brakes, steering wheel, and so on.

VIDEO: Willy Wonka (HD) "Oompa Loompa Augustus Gloop Song"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZhs7w-FzeI

 

To Charlie, the factory might be a novelty or a curiosity, but to organizational communication scholars, it’s a pretty clear example of the classical management approach—an approach that likens organizations to machines, with a focus on maximizing efficiency. Not surprisingly, classical management reached its peak during the Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth century—a time when factories and machinery were proliferating rapidly in various parts of the world, particularly Europe, North America, and Japan.

VIDEO:  Original Old School Classic Oompa Loompa Music Videos 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qw0zZttfUaw

 

Classical management depends on two central ideas, both of which have strong implications for communication. The first is a division of labor, or the assumption that each part of an organization (and each person involved) must carry out a specialized task in order for the organization to run smoothly. This is exactly what you see in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: each worker has a very specific job, and there is little reason for individual workers—or groups of workers on different tasks—to communicate with one another. Classical management approaches also favor hierarchy, which refers to the layers of power and authority in an organization. To illustrate, in Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory, Willy has the most power to control the working conditions, rewards, and other aspects of life for all the creatures who work in the factory. His team of lower-level “managers” (such as the head of the Oompa Loompas) have somewhat less power. And the assembly-line workers themselves have almost no power at all. As illustrated, communication in such situations usually flows from the top (management) down to the bottom (the lowest-level workers). It’s unlikely that a worker pouring chocolate would contact Willie Wonka to make suggestions for improving the factory.

Source:  Dan O'Hair and Mary Wiemann describe the power oforganizational culture, in their textbook  Real Communication An Introduction with Mass Communication.