Spring 2007 History of Management Thought 1

Spring 2007
• To add perspective to the present…nothing new under the sun
• To understand where ideas came from
• To see the role of social, legal, political, economic, technological factors
History of Management Thought 2

Spring 2007
• Management existed, but…..
– Often hereditary (usually male…)
– One-trial learning
– But, some thought about management
History of Management Thought 3

Spring 2007
• First large state
• Centralized government
– Provincial governors (nomarchs)
– Bureaucrats (taxation, irrigation)
– Based on writing (first Information
Revolution)
• Large scale construction projects
– Pyramids, Sphinx, temples
– Workforce: thousands of peasants, possibly slaves (prisoners of war)
History of Management Thought 4

Spring 2007
• Dates uncertain –
– Some say he lived ca. 544 BC to 496 BC
– Others place it closer to 600 BC
• A renowned Chinese general
• The Art of War a work on military strategy, but seen in Asia as a guide to management
• Principles:
– Moral cause for battle
– Leadership – wise, courageous, benevolent yet strict
– Awareness of environmental conditions – events and the playing field
– Organization and discipline
– Espionage
History of Management Thought 5

“Now the general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes few calculations before hand. It is by attention to this point that I can see who is likely to win or lose.”

Spring 2007
• Cato the Elder (234 - 149 BC)
• De re rustica or Roman Farm
Management
• Instructions for the management of a commercial farm
– Absentee landlord
– Based on slave labor
– Wine grapes or olives
History of Management Thought 7

Spring 2007
• “ When the weather is bad and field work cannot go on, carry the manure out to the manure heap. Clean thoroughly the ox stable, the sheep pen, the yard…”
• How an olive orchard…should be equipped…a foreman, a foreman’s wife, five laborers, three ox drivers, one ass driver, one swineherd, one shepherd, thirteen persons in all….”
• “Have the work oxen cared for with the greatest diligence and to some degree flatter the ox drivers so that they will more cheerfully care for the oxen”
• When the head of the household comes to the farmhouse...he should make the round of the farm; if not on the same day at least on the next.
Planning
Organizing
Leading
Controlling
History of Management Thought 8

Spring 2007
• A long-term process, not a single event
– Protestant Work ethic
– Political changes (American,
French revolutions)
– Invention of steam power
• Some important figures:
– Adam Smith (1776)
– James Watt, Eli Whitney
History of Management Thought 10

Spring 2007
• Manufacturing
– Steam engines
– Cotton gin
– Mass production through standardization and specialization
• Transportation
– Steam powered ships
– Railroads
• Communications
– Telegraph
History of Management Thought 11

Spring 2007
Large Organizations and New
Approaches to Management
• Economic transformation
– Previously – family farms, small workshops
– After Industrial Revolution – large organizations, requiring management skills
• New demands on management
– Need for professional managers
(as opposed to owners)
– Need to plan, structure, and schedule activities
– Push to efficiency
– Need for worker training and socialization to factory work
History of Management Thought 12

Spring 2007
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History of Management Thought 13

Spring 2007
• Time period: last half of 1800’s, first part of 1900’s
• Environment:
– Social / Political: little restraint (Robber
Barons)
– Economic: manufacturing economy, focus on efficiency
– Technology: most jobs relatively simple
• Major schools
– Scientific management
– Administrative management theory
History of Management Thought 14

Spring 2007
• Bottom- up approach
• Focus on efficiency, primarily in industrial settings
• Today: industrial engineering, production management
• Key players:
– Frederick W. Taylor
– Frank and Lillian Gilbreth
History of Management Thought 15

Spring 2007
• Standard methods for performing jobs
• Push to efficiency
• Employee selection and training
• Management control over work processes
• Wage incentives for output
History of Management Thought 16

Spring 2007
• Worked at Midvale Steel
(beginning as a common laborer, rising to chief engineer, in 6 years)
• Identified “soldiering”
– Workers doing less than they were capable of
– Due to lack of training, fear of losing work or rate cuts
• Began with time study and incentive plans
• Pig iron study: the right shovel for each job
History of Management Thought 17

Spring 2007
• Focus on work simplification and efficiency
– Reduce time and fatigue
(Frank)
– Involve workers (Lillian)
• “The One Best Way”
• Therbligs
History of Management Thought 18

• Contributions:
– Pay for performance
– Careful examination of job tasks
– Importance of training and selection
• But……..*
– Assumed workers were robots without social needs or higher order needs
– Assumed all individuals were the same
– Ignored worker’s potential to contribute ideas, not just labor
* These are Taylor’s ideas; Gilbreths thought differently
Spring 2007 History of Management Thought 20

Spring 2007
• Top-down approach
• Focus on rationality, no matter what the setting
• Today: basis of most management texts
• Key players:
– Henri Fayol
– Max Weber
History of Management Thought 21

Spring 2007
• French manager (coal mining)
• Published Industrial and General
Administration in 1916 (not translated into English until 1930’s)
• Elements of management
– Planning
– Organizing
– Command, Coordination, Control
• Fourteen principles
• Universality of management
• Management as a skill can be taught
History of Management Thought 22

Spring 2007
1.
Specialization of labor
2.
Authority
3.
Discipline
4.
Unity of command
5.
Unity of direction
6.
Subordination of individual interests
7.
Remuneration
8.
Centralization
9.
Scalar chain
(line of authority)
10. Order
11. Equity
12. Personnel tenure
13. Initiative
14. Esprit de corps
History of Management Thought 23

• Traditional
– Inherited - monarchs
• Charismatic
– Based on the individual
• Rational – Legal
– Based on the position
Spring 2007 History of Management Thought 24

Spring 2007
• Bureaucracy = management by the office
(Büro)
• Weber well aware that bureaucracy could become an end in itself
• Bureaucracy
– Clearly defined division of labor, authority, responsibility
– Offices organized in a hierarchy
– Recordkeeping (organizational memory and continuity separate from individuals)
– Selection on the basis of qualifications
– Officials appointed, not elected
– Administrators work for fixed salaries, on a career basis
– Administrators are not owners
– Administrators subject to impersonal rules, discipline, control
History of Management Thought 25

• Hawthorne Studies
• Mary Parker Follett
• Chester Barnard
Spring 2007 History of Management Thought 26

Spring 2007
• Western Electric plant, Hawthorne
Illinois, 1930’s
• Mayo, Roethlisberger and Dickson
• Original idea: effect of lighting on productivity
• Three phases
– Relay Assembly Test Room (social nature of work, effect of supervision)
– Bank Wiring Room (group norms)
– Interview program
• The “Hawthorne Effect”
History of Management Thought 27

Spring 2007
• Mary Parker Follett
– Primarily a political thinker, theoretical writer
– Emphasized the importance of the group
• Chester Barnard
– AT & T executive
– Importance of communications
– Authority -- exists only if accepted
– Functions of the executive
History of Management Thought 28

• Management science
• Systems theory
• Motivation and leadership
• Contingency models
Spring 2007 History of Management Thought 29

Spring 2007
• Different from "scientific management”
• Formative years: 1940's to
1960's
• Operations research
• Uses a quantitative basis for decision making mathematical models
• Emphasis on managing production and operations
History of Management Thought 30

Spring 2007
• Formative years: 1950's to
1970's
• Views an organization as a group of inter-dependent functions contributing to a single purpose
• Important contributor: U.S.
Department of Defense
History of Management Thought 31

Spring 2007
• Late 1950's: Douglas McGregor proposed his Theory X and Theory Y assumptions of the relations between
• Early and mid 1960's: contingency models of leadership proposed a need for different styles under different circumstances (Fred Fiedler)
• 1964: Vroom's VIE theory (valence, instrumentality, expectancy) of motivation proposed
• Mid 1960's: David McClelland proposed need for achievement theory
• Late 1960's: Frederick Herzberg proposed his two-factor theory of motivation
(motivators and hygiene factors)
• Late 1960's: Edwin Locke outlined his goal setting approach to motivation
History of Management Thought 32

Spring 2007
• Formative years: 1970's to
1990's
• Is there “One Best Way”
????
– Appropriate practice depends on the situation
• Found in:
– Organization design
– Leadership
History of Management Thought 33