Management

:Manager redirects to here. For use in sports, see coach (sport).

Historical development

Some writers trace the development of management thought back to Sumerian traders and ancient Egyptian pyramid builders. Slave-owners through the centuries faced the problems of exploiting/motivating a dependent but sometimes recalcitrant workforce, but many pre-industrial enterprises, given their small scale, did not feel compelled to face the issues of management systematically. But 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.

Related Topics:
Sumeria - Egypt - Pyramid - Slave-owners - Workforce - Enterprise - Arabic numerals - Double-entry book-keeping

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19th century

Modern management as a discipline began as an off-shoot of economics in the 19th century. Classical economists such as Adam Smith and John Stuart Mill provided a theoretical background to resource allocation, production, and pricing issues. About the same time, innovators like Eli Whitney, James Watt, and Matthew Boulton developed technical production elements such as standardization, quality control procedures, cost accounting, interchangeability of parts, and work planning.

Related Topics:
Economics - 19th century - Classical economist - Adam Smith - John Stuart Mill - Resource allocation - Production - Pricing - Eli Whitney - James Watt - Matthew Boulton - Standardization - Quality control - Cost accounting - Plan

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By the middle of the 19th century, Robert Owen, Henry Poor, and M. Laughlin and others introduced the human element with theories of worker training, motivation, organizational structure and span of control. Compare the analyses of Karl Marx and of Friedrich Engels.

Related Topics:
Training - Motivation - Organizational structure - Span of control - Karl Marx - Friedrich Engels

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By the late 19th century, marginal economists Alfred Marshall and Leon Walras and others introduced a new layer of complexity to the theoretical underpinings of management. Joseph Wharton offered the first tertiary-level course in management in 1881.

Related Topics:
Marginal economists - Alfred Marshall - Leon Walras - Joseph Wharton - 1881

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20th century

By about 1900 we find managers trying to place their theories on a thoroughly scientific basis. Examples include Henry Towne's Science of management in the 1890s, Frederick Winslow Taylor's 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 text book in 1911.

Related Topics:
1900 - Henry Towne - Frederick Winslow Taylor - Scientific management - Frank - Lillian Gilbreth - Henry L. Gantt - College - Text book - 1911

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The first comprehensive theories of management appeared around 1920. People like Henri Fayol and Alexander Church described the various branches of management and their inter-relationships. In the early 20th century, people like Ordwat Tead, Walter Scott and J. Mooney applied the principles of psychology to management, while other writers, such as Elton Mayo, Mary Parker Follett, Chester Barnard, Max Weber, Rensis Likert, and Chris Argyris approached the phenomenon of management from a sociological perspective.

Related Topics:
1920 - Henri Fayol - 20th century - Walter Scott - Psychology - Elton Mayo - Mary Parker Follett - Chester Barnard - Max Weber - Chris Argyris - Sociological

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Peter Drucker 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 has gone on to write 32 books, many in the same vein.

Related Topics:
Peter Drucker - Alfred Sloan - General Motors - Organisation

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H. Dodge, Ronald Fisher, and Thorton C. Fry introduced statistical techniques into management. 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", attempts to take a scientific approach to solving management problems, particularly in the areas of logistics and operations.

Related Topics:
Ronald Fisher - 1940s - Patrick Blackett - Microeconomic - Theory - Science - Operations research - Logistics

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Some of the more recent developments include the theory of constraints, Management by objectives, reengineering, and various information technology driven theories such as agile software development.

Related Topics:
Theory of constraints - Management by objectives - Reengineering - Information technology - Agile software development

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As the general recognition of managers as a class solidified during the 20th century and gave perceived practitioners 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 management theory.

Related Topics:
Popularised systems of management ideas - Fad - Pop psychology

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Towards the end of the 20th century, business management came to consist of six separate branches, namely:

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• Human resource management
• Operations management or production management
• Strategic management
• Marketing management
• Financial management
• Information Technology management

21st century

In the 21st century we find it increasingly difficult to subdivide management into functional categories in this way. More and more processes simultaneously involve several categories. Instead, we tend to think in terms of the various processes, tasks, and objects subject to management. A list of some of the areas of management can be found later in this article.

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It is also the case that many of the assumptions made by management have been under attack from business ethics, critical management studies, and anti-corporate activism.

Related Topics:
Business ethics - Critical management studies - Anti-corporate activism

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One consequence is that workplace democracy has become both more common, and more advocated, in some places distributing all management functions among the workers, each of whom takes on a portion of the work. However, these models predate any current political issue, and may be more natural than command hierarchy. All management is to some degree democratic in that there must be majority support of workers for the management in the long term, or they leave to find other work, or go on strike.

Related Topics:
Workplace democracy - Command hierarchy

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