EMPIRICAL SCHOOL OF ADMINISTRATION: CHARACTERISTICS, AUTHORS, ADVANTAGES - DUDAS - 2025

The empirical school of administration is a model that analyzes management through experience. As a study of practice, it creates a generalization, but usually as a means of teaching the experience to the practitioner or student.

It is the administrative school that seeks to achieve the desired results through the application of a scheme acquired from examples that have already been proven and its success can be confirmed.

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The companies that apply the empirical school of management have their general objectives clearly established from the beginning, they dedicate time to observe other companies with achievements and goals equivalent to those sought, study the results and analyze their methods.

Currently, most companies use the empirical school in conjunction with the modern and classical schools, because similar backgrounds and deep knowledge of the company can improve decision-making and management activity.

Experience and decisions

Practitioners at this school formulate lessons and principles from past management experiences and use them as guides for their future actions.

This school of thought regards management as the study of experience. By analyzing the experiences of successful managers or the mistakes of poor managers in the case studies, you somehow learn to manage.

This school views administration as a series of decisions and the analysis of decisions as the center of administration.

Origin

The history of the administration spans several thousand years. However, only from the end of the 19th century, management is considered a formal discipline.

Although the practice of management is as old as the human race, its conceptual framework is of recent origin. Most contemporary management theories are a twentieth century phenomenon.

Initial stages

An example of the development and initial use of administrative principles is recorded in Egypt from 2900 BC, when it was used for years to build the pyramids.

Ideas of management also developed in the empires of China, Greece, and Rome in the Middle Ages. It was characterized by the use of strategies of fear, absolute authority, coercion and force in the human aspect of the administration.

In the Renaissance era, changes in social values, human worth, and individual knowledge, ability, and achievement were recognized.

Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution is a major turning point in the history of the administration. It emerged in the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century. It allowed companies to grow much more than ever.

Management no longer involved direct supervision of a few employees. From this time companies with hundreds or thousands of employees arose. It is a key moment in the history of the administration, which led to many of the theories used today.

The Industrial Revolution led to the creation of several different management concepts. Many emerged in the years that followed. Although these concepts evolved, they are still relevant in the modern era.

Management schools

During the brief history of management schools, management as a discipline has given rise to a more or less separate set of schools. Each sees the administration from its own point of view. None is absolute. These views can offer multiple perspectives.

There are many theories for management, and each has some utility and some limitations. Therefore, there is no single management school.

The management theories initially weren't really theories, but some discrete practices or experiences.

The empirical approach is essentially one of observation of things. After running all the tests, the most important thing is the final result.

characteristics

This school believes that by analyzing the experience of successful managers or the mistakes of poor managers, one can somehow learn to apply the most effective management techniques. The main characteristics of this school are:

- Management is the study of management experiences.

- Administrative experiences can be profitably transferred to students.

- Future managers can use the techniques used in successful cases as future references.

This case study method is the best for delivering management education as it contributes to the development of managerial skills.

- Theoretical investigations can be combined with practical experiences to achieve better management.

- Any theoretical research will be based on practical experience.

Study of cases

This management approach is taken by academics to identify management as the study of experience, followed by the effort to learn from experience, and then transfer that knowledge to professionals and students. This is done through case studies or study of decision making.

The success and failure of management in the decision-making process can guide the manager in a similar situation that may arise in the future. Case studies in management are useful for training future managers.

Therefore, empirical schools rely heavily on the background related to management situations handled by managers and their own experience, on the basis that research and thinking evolved in the course of study will surely help to verify the principles.

Since this approach emphasizes management case studies, it is also known as a case study approach. By analyzing the cases, certain generalizations can be drawn and applied as useful guides for future thoughts or actions.

Representative authors

Lawrence Appley

President of the American Management Association. He dedicated his studies to improving administrative techniques through the development of administrative methods and skills.

He analyzed a large number of organizations and authors, allowing him to have a wide and deep knowledge about companies, making it possible for these administrative benefits to reach different nations. Among his contributions are the following:

- Deduce management principles of general application, established in methods and practices of the system previously verified by other companies.

- Support that some managerial principles can be applied to any type of situation.

Ernest dale

His most important works are Administration, theory and practice and Large organizations. World renowned for his advice on organization and leadership, he was president of the American Academy of Administration, in which he used all his knowledge.

He received many awards in management and economics for his business contributions, but mostly for possessing his own investigative techniques.

His main success was getting people to do their best when they found themselves in unfavorable situations. He is considered as the father of the empirical school.

Dale indicates that the main means of transmitting the experience to the students is by using the method of presenting real cases.

He also points out that in practice the most immediate investigations should be used. With this, it tries to find and analyze the most effective solutions to practical problems, investigating what other companies are doing, in order to take advantage of those experiences.

Peter drucker

In the 1950s, he stated in his book Business Management that the success of an organization lies in the attention paid to the objectives. In his book he analyzes the system of administration by objectives, showing the importance of managing for the achievement of objectives.

It is indisputably the first reference when it comes to empirical management. Worldwide recognized for its contributions, among which are:

- Administration based on meeting objectives.

- Emphasis on marketing.

- Administration based on the results achieved.

- Requirement to carry out long-term plans.

- Studies on the figure of the manager, its main characteristics and features.

Advantages and disadvantages

-Advantage

Experienced administrators

It is based on the experience that the administrator has. One of the important requirements that this school verifies is the experience acquired in adverse circumstances within a company.

This facilitates less oversight by managers, as they can assume that the manager knows what he is doing.

The companies that operate with this administrative school often benefit from the human resources that other companies change for some reason.

Clear objectives

Companies must have well-defined objectives, in order to have a model to follow easily.

It is necessary to find the model that best suits the needs, to then make the minimum adjustments necessary to be successful in its application.

Based on facts

This school is based on facts, on correcting mistakes. Its principles are clearly empirical and, therefore, no other method is proposed as a form of experimentation.

In addition, it is practiced with the systems of other companies, when comparing past administrative situations with current and future ones.

-Disadvantages

Oriented to the past

The backward orientation of the empirical approach is considered its main disadvantage. There can be a great contrast between past and present situations.

Depends on background

It depends largely on the historical study, mainly on the background. It does not take into account that an administrator has to work in dynamic conditions and that history does not repeat itself exactly.

Management, unlike law, is not a science based on the background. It is extremely unlikely situations in the future that can be exactly compared to the past.

There is a risk in relying too much on past experiences and a history of problem solving management, because the technique found in the past may not fit a future situation.

Past conditions may not have occurred with the same pattern. Techniques developed to solve past problems may be irrelevant in future situations.

Time consuming

Learning management through experience is a time-consuming process.

Executives have neither the patience nor the time to learn management in this way.

References

1. Sindhuja (2019). Top 8 Schools of Management Theory. Business Management Ideas. Taken from: businessmanagementideas.com.
2. Management Study HQ (2019). Major Schools of Management Thought. Taken from: managementstudyhq.com.
3. Research Gate (2019). Schools of Management Thought. Taken from: researchgate.net.
4. Smriti Chand (2019). Classification of Management Thoughts in Five Schools of Management Theory. Your Article Library. Taken from: yourarticlelibrary.com.
5. Matias Riquelme (2018). Empirical Administration (Definition and Principles). Web and Companies. Taken from: webyempresas.com.
6. Gakko-kanri (2019). Empirical School. Taken from: gakko-kanri.blogspot.com.