Difficulties arise in tracing the history of management. Some see it (by definition) as a late modern (in the sense of late modernity) conceptualization. On those terms it cannot have a pre-modern history, only harbingers (such as stewards). Others, however, detect management-like-thought back to Sumerian traders and to the builders of the pyramids of ancient Egypt.
Slave-owners through the centuries faced the problems of
exploiting/motivating a dependent but sometimes unenthusiastic or
recalcitrant workforce, but many pre-industrial enterprises,
given their small scale, did not feel compelled to face the issues of
management systematically. However, innovations such as the spread of Arabic numerals (5th to 15th centuries) and the codification of double-entry book-keeping (1494) provided tools for management assessment, planning and control.
Given the scale of most commercial operations and the lack of mechanized record-keeping and recording before the industrial revolution, it made sense for most owners
of enterprises in those times to carry out management functions by and
for themselves. But with growing size and complexity of organizations,
the split between owners (individuals, industrial dynasties or groups
of shareholders) and day-to-day managers (independent specialists in planning and control) gradually became more common.
[edit] Early writingWhile management has been present for millennia, several writers
have created a background of works that assisted in modern management
theories.
[4][edit] Sun Tzu's The Art of WarWritten by Chinese general Sun Tzu in the 6th century BC,
The Art of Waris a military strategy book that, for managerial purposes, recommends
being aware of and acting on strengths and weaknesses of both a
manager's organization and a foe's.
[4][edit] Niccolò Machiavelli's The PrinceBelieving that people were motivated by self-interest, Niccolò Machiavelli wrote
The Prince in 1513 as advice for the leadership of Florence, Italy.
[5] Machiavelli recommended that leaders use fear—but not hatred—to maintain control.
[edit] Adam Smith's The Wealth of NationsWritten in 1776 by Adam Smith, a Scottish moral philosopher,
The Wealth of Nations aims for efficient organization of work through Specialization of labor.
[5] Smith described how changes in processes could boost productivity in the manufacture of pins.
While individuals could produce 200 pins per day, Smith analyzed the
steps involved in manufacture and, with 10 specialists, enabled
production of 48,000 pins per day.
[5][edit] 19th centuryClassical economists such as Adam Smith (1723 - 1790) and John Stuart Mill (1806 - 1873) provided a theoretical background to resource-allocation, production, and pricing issues. About the same time, innovators like Eli Whitney (1765 - 1825), James Watt (1736 - 1819), and Matthew Boulton (1728 - 1809) developed elements of technical production such as standardization, quality-control procedures, cost-accounting, interchangeability of parts, and work-planning. Many of these aspects of management existed in the pre-1861 slave-based sector of the US economy. That environment saw 4 million people, as the contemporary usages had it, "managed" in profitable quasi-mass production.
By the late 19th century, marginal economists Alfred Marshall (1842 - 1924), Léon Walras (1834 - 1910), and others introduced a new layer of complexity to the theoretical underpinnings of management. Joseph Wharton offered the first tertiary-level course in management in 1881.
[edit] 20th centuryBy about 1900 one finds managers trying to place their theories on what they regarded as a thoroughly scientific basis (see scientism for perceived limitations of this belief). Examples include Henry R. Towne's
Science of management in the 1890s, Frederick Winslow Taylor's
The Principles of Scientific Management (1911), Frank and Lillian Gilbreth's
Applied motion study (1917), and Henry L. Gantt's charts (1910s). J. Duncan wrote the first college management textbook in 1911. In 1912 Yoichi Ueno introduced Taylorism to Japan and became first management consultant of the "Japanese-management style". His son Ichiro Ueno pioneered Japanese quality-assurance.
The first comprehensive theories of management appeared around 1920. The Harvard Business School invented the Master of Business Administration degree (MBA) in 1921. People like Henri Fayol (1841 - 1925) and Alexander Church
described the various branches of management and their
inter-relationships. In the early 20th century, people like Ordway Tead
(1891 - 1973), Walter Scott and J. Mooney applied the principles of psychology to management, while other writers, such as Elton Mayo (1880 - 1949), Mary Parker Follett (1868 - 1933), Chester Barnard (1886 - 1961), Max Weber (1864 - 1920), Rensis Likert (1903 - 1981), and Chris Argyris (1923 - ) approached the phenomenon of management from a sociological perspective.
Peter Drucker (1909 – 2005) wrote one of the earliest books on applied management:
Concept of the Corporation (published in 1946). It resulted from Alfred Sloan (chairman of General Motors until 1956) commissioning a study of the organisation. Drucker went on to write 39 books, many in the same vein.
H. Dodge, Ronald Fisher (1890 - 1962), and Thornton C. Fry introduced statistical techniques into management-studies. In the 1940s, Patrick Blackett combined these statistical theories with microeconomic theory and gave birth to the science of operations research. Operations research, sometimes known as "management science" (but distinct from Taylor's scientific management), attempts to take a scientific approach to solving management problems, particularly in the areas of logistics and operations.
Some of the more recent
[update] developments include the Theory of Constraints, management by objectives, reengineering, Six Sigma and various information-technology-driven theories such as agile software development, as well as group management theories such as Cog's Ladder.
As the general recognition of managers as a class solidified during
the 20th century and gave perceived practitioners of the art/science of
management a certain amount of prestige, so the way opened for popularised systems of management ideas to peddle their wares. In this context many management fads may have had more to do with pop psychology than with scientific theories of management.
Towards the end of the 20th century, business management came to consist of six separate branches, namely:
- Human resource management
- Operations management or production management
- Strategic management
- Marketing management
- Financial management
- Information technology management responsible for management information systems
[edit] 21st century