ABSTRACT
This chapter provides in-depth explanation of classical management theory (1880s–1920s). The theories of Frederick Taylor, Max Weber, and Henri Fayol are distinctly cast as rooted in the particular purposes of the theorists. The role of industrialization in the historical context is addressed. The chapter analyzes how organizational form is a cultural construction rooted in a theoretic foundation, with the vertical authority structure as a cultural artifact for organizational design. The ways that contemporary organizational forms, designs, and structures were created by the teachings of this body of theory will be illustrated, and the implications for organizational communication as it is currently practiced is addressed.
