EVOLUTION OF MANAGEMENT
THE EVOLUTION OF MANAGEMENT 1. ... Many current management concepts and practices can be traced to early management theories. ... There are many examples from past history that illustrate how management has been practiced. ... The answer is management. • Even the Bible refers to management concepts. • The Roman Catholic Church is often cited as an interesting example of the practice of management. ... The Industrial Revolution can be thought of as possibly the most important pre-twentieth century influence on management. ... THE EARLY YEARS The first half of the twentieth century was a period of contrasts in management thought. Four approaches to management are examined: scientific management, general administrative approach, human resource/people side, and quantitative. ... Scientific management is defined as the use of the scientific method to define the "one best way" for a job to be done. • Frederick Taylor is known as the "father" of scientific management. ... • His "pig iron" experiment is probably the most widely cited example of scientific management. • Using the principles of scientific management, Taylor was able to define the one best way for doing each job. • Scientific management gained a big boost when an efficiency expert testified at a 1910 hearing on railroad rates before the Interstate Commerce Commission that railroads could save one million dollars a day through the application of scientific management. • Frank and Lillian Gilbreth were inspired by Taylors work and went on to study and develop their own methods of scientific management. ... • In order to understand why scientific management was seen as so important, it is necessary to look at the historical times in which Taylor, the Gilbreths, and Gantt lived. ... They were important for developing more general theories of what managers do and what good management practice is. This group and the group of scientific management theorists are often referred to as the classical theorists. ... • He described the practice of management as distinct from other typical business functions. • He stated fourteen principles of management (fundamental or universal truths) that could be taught in schools. ... • A number of current ideas and practices in management can be directly traced to the contributions of the general administrative theorists.