page_title: Charles Edward Knoeppel
section_title: Principles of organization, 1908
hierarchical_section_title: Charles Edward Knoeppel / Work / Principles of organization, 1908
caption_attribution_description: English: Chart of Working Authorities in a Trading Business, 1910
context_page_description: Charles Edward Knoeppel was an American organizational theorist and consultant, who was among the foremost writers on management techniques early 20th century.
context_section_description: In the first article of "Maximum Production Through Organization and Supervision" (1908) Knoeppel raised the subject of a universal application of the principles of organization: the segregation of authority.
  "While business as it is now conducted is not as simple as it was in the barter days, it must not be inferred that this segregation of authority is synonymous with complexity, for its very purpose has been to simplify, and that is what it has accomplished. It is only where this segregation has been the result of lack of thought and proper attention, or other like causes, that we find a complex and unsatisfactory condition of affairs. In fact, there is all about us sufficient evidence that many commercial enterprises are being conducted along lines that, as far as evolutional development is concerned, are several stages behind the times.
  Furthermore Knoeppel illustrates the principle of segregation needed in the modern factory, by tracing the circumstances of a modern founder of business:
  "Let us suppose a case, which will apply in a greater or less degree to the majority. In the earlier development, we will say that the founder of the business was able, on account of its small size, to make what sketches he needed, solicit orders, see that they were filled, perhaps take a hand at the making if occasion required, see to the shipments, and attend to the collections and the keeping of his few accounts. He finds that the business grows, and eventually places a man in charge of certain branches while he looks after others. The accounts eventually require more attention than he can give them so he engages a bookkeeper in order that he may be relieved of the work. He finds that the quantity of materials received and shipped amount to enough to warrant a receiving clerk as well as a shipping clerk, and, to handle this material from its inception to shipment he conceives the idea of placing a man in charge as stock clerk. He then adds a purchasing agent, in order that he may be relieved of the detail and that purchases may be made most economically; a man is placed in charge of the orders; foremen are placed in charge of certain men in the shops; the details connected with making plans, drawings, estimates, etc., are taken over by a practical man; his manager is given a man to look after the shops or engineering branch; while the commercial branch with its many details is placed in the hands of another. As the evolution continues, the selling branch is assumed by one man; cost details are looked after by another; a chief inspector is added in order that all work may be shipped according to specifications; the engineer, who before had been a sort of jack of all trades, is placed in charge of certain work, while an electrician is engaged to look after this particular work; and so this segregation continues as the development continues.
  "Perhaps it is not to be wondered at that the founder, in looking backward, is inclined to pat himself on the back when, in a reminiscent mood, he considers what he terms 'remarkable development.' He considers that he has been wonderfully successful in building up a business which at the beginning was so small as to admit of his supervising every detail, while today he employs a dozen men to do the work he once did. There is no getting away from the fact that it is this same feeling of self-satisfaction that is responsible for a large number of faulty organizations, for if we should tell this manufacturer that his business is far from being as successful as it is possible for it to be ... he would vigorously resent any such accusation; but the fact remains that it is not the success it should be, for the very reason that the development has been allowed practically to take care of itself. New men were added, new offices created, only when absolutely necessary, each newcomer being given a general idea of what was expected of him, and not knowing, not thinking, or perhaps not having the time to give more than passing attention to the matter, the proprietor did not consider the fact that his busine
caption: Chart of Working Authorities in a Trading Business, 1910.[13]
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