What are the limitations of traditional organizational theory?

The traditional, classical theories of organizations are more oriented to the study of organizational statics, i.e., they look at organizations from an economic-technical perspective. Their organizational theories are characterized by (1) the organization as a system of division of labor; (2) the organization as a system of hierarchical moderation; (3) the organization as a system of distribution of authority and responsibility; (4) the organization as a system of decrees and regulations; and (5) the organization as a system with goals.

From the above conception of organization, the principles of organizational management they emphasized and pursued are: (1) systematization of organizational structure; (2) planning of organizational work; (3) standardization of organizational operation; (4) efficiency of organizational management.

These ideas put forward by classical management theory construct the cornerstone of modern organizational management theory, provide the analytical framework of organizational theory, and reveal the most basic requirements and characteristics of organizational development.

Traditional organizational theories, despite the above contributions, have their inevitable limitations due to the limitations of historical conditions, which are mainly manifested in:

(1) Traditional organizational theories overemphasize the static aspects of the organization, ignoring the dynamic side of the organization. They only study the structure, how to study the division of labor, how to establish hierarchical control, how to establish legal rules, ignoring the study of informal organizations, ignoring the study of human behavior in the organization.

(2) The traditional organization theory over-emphasizes the mechanical concept of "efficiency", emphasizes the overall needs and interests of the organization, and treats human beings as "economic beings", ignoring human nature, human dignity, human emotions, human needs and individual interests. The organization's overall needs and interests are emphasized, and people are treated as "economic beings".

(3) The traditional organizational theory over-emphasizes the role of organizational laws, systems, norms, rules, and the strong apathy to human supervision and control, tends to centralized management, easy to suppress the initiative and enthusiasm of human work.

(4) In the research orientation, the organization is treated as a closed system, failing to involve the relationship between the organization and the external environment and the mutual influence of each other, ignoring the uncertainty of the external environment.