ABSTRACT
This chapter intends to give the reader a thorough understanding of organizational theory and research. Initially a chronological overview of the most important historical organization theories will be given. These theories are the Neo-Human-Relations Approach, the Cognitive-Symbolic Approach and the Contingency Theory. The very beginnings of organizational research can be traced back to three main basic theories. The first is American, the second is French, and the third goes back to the German sociologist Weber. According to Taylor, work organization represented a revolution in the way work was performed at that time. Taylor's underlying idea was to achieve significant efficiency gains through specialization of the workforce. The realization of Scientific Management has a number of significant consequences for organizational structures, as the differentiation of tasks reaches an extremely high level with this kind of organization. Weber develops a theoretical model in which he explains why, according to him; bureaucratically based rule is superior to any other kind of rule.
