Chester (Irving) Barnard

Businessman, public official, and foundation executive, born in Malden, Massachusetts, USA. After working as an engineer with the American Telephone and Telegraph Company in Boston (1909–22), he moved on to head the Pennsylvania and then New Jersey Bell companies (1922–48). He served on various civic boards, and during World War 2 was president of the United Service Organizations for National Defense (1942–5) and director of the National War Fund (1943–6). After the war he was a US representative on the Atomic Energy Committee, and he chaired various science foundations. His later reputation derives from his books, The Functions of the Executive (1938) and Organization and Management (1948).

Chester Irving Barnard (1886–1961) was a telecommunications executive and author of Functions of the Executive, an influential 20th century management book, in which Barnard presented a theory of organization and the functions of executives in organizations.

He looked at organizations as systems of cooperation of human activity, and was worried about the fact that they are typically rather short-lived.

According to Barnard, this happens because organizations do not meet the two criteria necessary for survival: effectiveness and efficiency. He defines efficiency of an organization as the degree to which that organization is able to satisfy the motives of the individuals.

Two of his theories are particularly interesting: the theory of authority and the theory of incentives. Both are seen in the context of a communication system that should be based in some essential rules:

Everyone should know of the channels of communication Everyone should have access to the formal channels of communication Lines of communication should be as short and as direct as possible

Thus, what makes a communication authoritative rests on the subordinate rather than in the boss.

In the theory of incentives, he sees two ways of convincing subordinates to cooperate: tangible incentives and persuasion.

The book is complex, not light reading.

He, then, ends by summarizing the functions of the executive (the title of the book) as being:

The establishment and maintenance of the system of communication The securing of the essential services from individuals The formulation of the organizational purpose and objectives