Interpretive Epistemology (Anti-positivist): this area says that an understanding of the organization can only be gained from the employees’ experiences. The classical perspective emerges from the Industrial Revolution in the private sector and the need for improved public administration in the public sector. Both efforts center on theories of efficiency. Classical works have seasoned and have been elaborated upon in depth. [9] There are at least two subtopics under the classical perspective: the scientific management and bureaucracy theory. [10] Hertz, D.; Livingston, R. (1950). "Contemporary Organizational theory: A review of current concepts and methods". Human Relations. 3 (4): 373–394. doi: 10.1177/001872675000300403. S2CID 145470263. Boundaries: employees mark their territory with their own belongings to show that the space is theirs. These markings become symbolic of the people or groups occupying that territory. Concept: These are like folders, which we create to store similar experiences and ideas, only highlighting a few similar features. A concept is formed after abstraction has taken place.

George Homans said that the physical change in setting represented that the group was being given special treatment by management (and thus acquiring a special status) and this was the result of their increase in productivity - because of the change in physical structure.The hierarchical nature of bureaucracies allows employees to demonstrate achieved social status. [14] When an officeholder is elected instead of appointed, that person is no longer a purely bureaucratic figure. He derives his power "from below" instead of "from above." When a high-ranking officer selects officials, they are more likely to be chosen for reasons related to the benefit of the superior than the competency of the new hire. When high-skilled employees are necessary for the bureaucracy and public opinion shapes decision-making, competent officers are more likely to be selected. [14] Space: This is where the organization conducts its business; it is where suppliers, customers, partners and stakeholders are located. These can be mapped on a spatial map, showing the activities of the organization around the world.

Waldo, Dwight. 1978. "Organization Theory: Revisiting the Elephant." Public Administration Review 38(November/December). p. 597Increases efficiency due to task specialization - i.e. in a group of workers, each specializes on a specific task to complete the whole product. Chunking: Abstraction also allows the “chunking” of information. This is the process that enables us to think of many different things at the same time. This is evident in concepts as they are made up of large or big “chunks” of information.

The positions that men and women had at work reflected their positions in real life; for example, in the work place, men had higher positions than women.

Management

Rules are stable and can be learned. Knowledge of these rules can be viewed as expertise within the bureaucracy (these allow for the management of society). Artefacts: are symbolic of the organizations culture. However, identifying culture from artefacts is very difficult to do, as they may have ambiguous meanings. Examples of artefacts include objects, verbal expressions and activities. Phenomenon of Interest: This is the main part of the theory which is explained by the concepts. Even though this can be expressed as a formula, this is not always the case. For instance, some phenomenon of interest can be explained in terms of statistics, or sayings. This is extremely common when it comes to explaining human behaviour, as it is very difficult to describe.