Traditional Model:
The Traditional model uses a rigid structure to procure success in business. There are two schools of organizational thought within the Traditional model; they are embodied by Scientific managers and Bureaucratic theorists. Both groups want to arrange a business into a successful and more efficient operation through supervising and managing the employees properly and fairly. However, both groups assume that workers are generally lazy and would rather not be working at all. This frame of mind reinforces the idea that structure and authority are what an employee needs to remain productive.
Scientific managers are most concerned with the problems of the employee. Frederick Taylor was one of these managers. He published a book entitled Scientific Management, in which he related his ideas for the proper way of managing employees. To increase efficiency, he spoke of designing each task so that there would be a standard procedure. He also dictated proper selection of workers, calling for standardization of hiring that would hire a person with the appropriate characteristics for the task. Training in the procedure for the task and rewards for productivity would increase output as well. Division of labor and responsibilities would help management and labor work together toward success. Taylor said that he who "substitutes the principles of scientific management for the rule of thumb" will be the more prosperous, happier, and "more free from discord and dissention(Taylor 140)".
Bureaucratic managers are more concerned with management problems. They believe in a small span of control, and a flat organization. This means that communication will be better because a given message will go through fewer intermediaries. In addition to that, it is believed that all communiqués should be iterated in written form.
Communication in the Traditional model is "very rational, task-oriented, formal, and usually written(Hamilton 68)". It is mainly downward, from managers to employees, delivering orders and tasks. This form of communication does not allow for much feedback, and it also proves an inefficient way of relaying messages. Social communication is not part of the system. Managers are to remain detached from employees so that emotion will not get in the way of making the most effective decision. The grapevine develops in this model from a need of the employee to communicate in a less formal manner.
Transformational Model:
"The newest organizational model is the result of the problems that traditional models have experienced surviving in today's business environment(Hamilton 65)". It is now recognized that large companies with tall hierarchies are not the most efficient forms of business.
"Formalized, complex structures make competition almost impossible in today's global market(Hamilton 66)" because smaller companies are much better at achieving the conditions that are necessary for growth. Innovation, flexibility, and customer service are much more efficiently and effectively executed in smaller, flatter bureaucracies.
Examples of transformation models are MultiUnit Organizations and Virtual Organizations.
MultiUnit Organization: One large holding company has control over several separate, autonomous businesses. In this system, a large company can act with the flexibility of a much smaller firm. These types of organizations are usually what a large company ends up as after it downsizes and restructures its organizational structure.
Virtual Organization: This is a temporary entity, and it is not usually physical. This type combines companies by way of a joint venture into development of a specific task. When the task is achieved, the relationship is typically dissolved. These give each company involved the combined knowledge, experience, and capability to do much more than any could have done alone, and affords them the flexibility of a small corporation. This type is temporary in every sense of the word; employees should not expect job security, but should see the experience as valuable because of the skills they will acquire in such a fast-paced work environment.
Communication among members of a Transformational organizations is horizontal, vertical and diagonal. This communication is primarily electronic, via email, fax, voicemail, and tele- or video-conference. As a result of using all of the high-tech, impersonal types of communication, nonverbal communication is missing. Because of this, it is necessary for employees in a transformational business to have formidable communication skills.
After comparing the models, one can recognize the benefits and drawbacks of each model, as well as see a general evolution in the way that workers and managers interact. The Traditional model seems to place less confidence in the employee, and more in the skills of the managing staff, while the Transformational model seems to trust the employee enough to allow him to grow as an individual and a professional.
Works Cited
Taylor, Frederick W. The Principles of Scientific Management. New York: Harper Bros., 1911.
Hamilton, Cheryl, and Cordell Parker. Communicating for Results. Belmont: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2001.