History of Management: The Evolution of Management - Essay Example

History of Management: The Evolution of Management The history of management goes only to numerous years into the past. However, it was recently in the 19th century that management was deliberated as a formal specialty. In essence, the discipline of management is only as ancient as the human race but the concepts and theories are not old (Adetule, 2011). Ancient instances of the use of management thoughts and ideas were documented in Egypt as early as 3000 BC when using men build the pyramids. Other ancient projects such as the great Chinese wall, the Persian roads and the Middle American Pyramids are also cited to have employed management ideas and principles (Bose, 2002). Management ideas and thoughts were also advanced in Greek and China in the middle Ages. Notably, Adetule (2011) acknowledges that the emergence of management and organization theory dates back to the times of Adam Smith and James Watt and Mathew Bolton among other fathers of management. In his book ‘wealth of Nations’, Adam Smith established himself as the father of liberal economics. Together with James and Bolton, their era of economics was called the economics facet of management. Juran (1995) outlines that after the economic facet of management, there came the management in the factory system. This level of management combined division of labor with technological advancement and economic rationale of the factory system. However, the factory system had new problems for managers, society and owners. Four management pioneer suggested solutions for handling with the pressures. This was the era of Andrew Ure, Charles Dupin, Robert Owens and Charles Babbage (Bose, 2002). The management descriptions and success in the factory system led to the rise of scientific management (Bose, 2002). While the first two management suggestions were mostly from Europe, scientific management has its roots in the U.S; its development was a combination of different management specialists and engineers in factories. The pioneers of scientific management include Henry Towne whose concept was ‘the engineer as an economist’. Others included Fredrick Halsey, Henry Metcalfe, Daniel McCallum, Fredrick Taylor, the most famous management frontiersman, Henry Gantt, Frank and Lillian Gilbreth and Morris Cooke among others (Wren, 2005). Taylor proposed that everyone’s job should be subdivided into aspects and a scientific way of performing each aspect determined and that these people should be scientifically selected and trained on how to do the work. Additionally, he also proposed that workers and managers should cooperate, and there ought to be a division of labor among the employees. The scientific management theory adopted the cautious description and measurement of all organizational tasks (Wren, 2005). The responsibilities were standardized as much as possible and workers would be rewarded and punished. This management idea and thought seemed efficient for companies with assembly lines and other routinized functionalities. The development of Scientific Management saw a rise in management and business. The rise of business organizations required something different from management only. Two people came up with the administrative theory of business. The two were Henri Fayol and Max Weber- the fathers of modern management (Juran, 1995). Bose (2002) argues that Fayol formulated his administrative theory by around 1900 but his ‘elements of management’ were less understood until 1949, when his writings were translated in a book called ‘General and Industrial Management.’ Fayol is deemed the frontiersman of modern management because he developed the five elements of management that are commanding, controlling, coordinating, planning and organizing. This was a unified idea of management, and the administrative principles were applicable to all managerial levels. Fayol’s management perspective stretched beyond the shop level and the physical production processes. Notably, Fayol acknowledged that the management process is similar at all levels of the organization. Fayol also developed fourteen principles of modern management (Juran, 1995). These principles entailed authority and responsibility, division of responsibilities, unity of command, direction, centralization, remuneration, and the equity stability of tenure of employees. According to Wren (2005), Weber had a different view of management with Fayol. He developed concepts of management similar to Taylor’s. Taylor’s management and administration concept was that of the bureaucracy. Weber considered Bureaucracy as an ideal arrangement for management of large scale business organizations. With the aim of removing managerial discrepancies and as a way of responding to administrative wrong use of power, Weber came up with numerous principles to offer support to organize group efforts. He believed in the division of labor and chain of command in administration. Weber also believed that selection or appointment must be based on qualifications. Moreover, he also suggested that business managers should not be owners and that uniform and impersonal rules should be applied in business management (Witzel, 2009). Both weber and Taylor believed that workers should not be soldered (Draft, 2008). Taylor used his book ‘principles of scientific management’ to describe his theory as ‘methods aimed at defining the one single-best way for of doing the job.’ Together with weber’s concept and Fayol’s elements of management the three contributed to the formation of the current management systems. According to Draft (2008), after their contribution, Peter Drucker developed three wider managerial functions namely managing workers and work, managing managers and managing business. His idea formed the basis of the social Manera School of management in 1949. The catalysis of the social Manera was Elton Mayo and Mary packer among others. Their theories believed on the social needs of the employees (Daft 2008). Juran (1995) outlines that all those developments were summed by the modern era total quality management (TQM). As a quality revolution flooded the business sector in the late 20th century, W. Edwards Deming and Joseph Juran developed the TQM concepts. This theory is based on performance and quality improvement, cost reduction and increased productivity in business. It combines all the evolution stages of management development (Daft, 2008). Though the discipline of management was in existence for many years ago, most of the ideas required synthesis and refinement. The ancient autocratic era of management is typified by the use of authority and force. However, the history of management idea as a specialty is traced back in the 19th century. Various schools of thoughts came up since the late years of the 19th century and each views management from its standpoint. References Adetule, J. (2011). Handbook on management theories. Bloomington, Author House. Bose, D. C. (2002). Principles of management and administration. New Delhi, Prentice-Hall of India. Daft, R. L. (2008). New era of management. Mason, Ohio, Thomson/South-Western. Juran, J. M. (1995). A history of managing for quality: the evolution, trends, and future directions of managing for quality. Milwaukee, Wis, ASQC Quality Press. Witzel, M. (2009). Management history: text and cases. London, Routledge. Wren, D. A. (2005). The history of management thought. Hoboken, NJ, Wiley. Read More