democratic control by the members of a police department would inevitably lead to the department being in conflict at various times with the will of the community ( e . g ., one favoring a hard-line approach to crime control versus the other being in favor of a more moderate approach ). Internally , large numbers of officers at the lower levels of the police department do not want to be treated like ― cogs in a machine ‖ and desire some voice in how the department operates . Thus , the challenge for police managers is how to maintain an organization that meets society ’ s needs and the needs of the officers who work in it . This requires an understanding of such things as the different ways of organizing and the contrasting assumptions that various organizational forms make about the nature of people . Such knowledge is found within organizational theory . Traditional Organizational Theory Traditional theory is associated with organizations described as classical , mechanistic , and closed systems , which assume little influence from outside of the organization . Its underlying assumption is that there is one best way to structure and operate an organization . This body of knowledge evolved over centuries and crystallized between 1900 and the 1950s . The three branches or stems of traditional organizational theory are ( 1 ) scientific management , ( 2 ) the bureaucratic model , and ( 3 ) administrative , or management , theory . Taylor : Scientific Management The father of scientific management is Frederick W . Taylor ( 1856 – 1915 ), and the thrust of his thinking was to find the ― one best way ‖ to do work ( see Figure 5.1 ). In addition to its status as a theory of work organization , Taylor ’ s scientific management is a theory of motivation in its belief that employees will be guided in their actions by what is in their economic self-interest . A Pennsylvanian born of Quaker – Puritan parents , Taylor was so discontented with the ― evils ‖ of waste and slothfulness that he applied the same careful analysis to finding the best way of playing croquet and of taking a cross-country walk with the least fatigue that was to be the hallmark of his later work in factories . 8 From 1878 to 1890 , Taylor worked at the Midvale Steel Company in Philadelphia , rising