The History of Management

Thought
MGT 336, Management History and
Theory
Michael Bejtlich, Instructor

Based on The History of Management Thought, 5th edition, 2005 by Daniel

A. Wren

Part One:
Early Management Thought

Chapter One
A Prologue to the Past

Purpose of this Study

To trace the significant periods in the
evolution of management thought from its
earliest days to the present.

What can we learn from reviewing

the history of management?

It helps us to integrate our knowledge of leadership.

It provides a perspective on the past to apply to the
present.
History helps us develop alternatives because our
knowledge has been broadened and deepened by an
understanding of the past.
What happened? is a starting point for developing
new ideas without reinventing the wheel.

A Cultural Framework

The economic facet relationship of people to

resources
The social facet relationship of people to other
people
The political facet relation of the individual to the
state
The technological facet related to the art and
applied science of making tools and equip

People, Management, and

Organizations

The human being is then fundamental unit of

analysis for the study of mankind, management, and
organizations.
Human basic needs and social needs led to the
formation of family and groups, a primitive
hierarchy of organization.
People found advantages in participating and
cooperating with others to achieve goals.

Figure 1-1

Early Organizations

First, there has to be a goal.

Second, people must be attracted to the
purpose in order to participate.
Third, organizational members need
resources.
Fourth, activities must be structured.
Fifth, results were better achieved through
the activity of management.

Definition
Management is the art of
arranging physical and human
resources toward purposeful
ends.

Chapter Two
Management before
Industrialization

Management in
Early Civilizations

Hammurabi Code of Law

Sun Tzu Planning and Strategy
Confucius Personnel selection by merit, early
bureaucracy, and division of labor
The Egyptians massive projects, Rule of 10
Kautilya Public administration, trait approach for
selecting leaders, use of staff for advising, and job
descriptions
Joseph best known for vizier - from which the word
supervisor is derived

Management in Early
Civilizations

Moses organization, span of control, delegation, and

the exception principle
Socrates transferability of managerial skills
Aristotle specialization of labor, departmentation,
delegation, synergy, leadership and scientific method
Xenophon advantages of specializing labor
Rome span of control as well as a model for later
civilizations

The Catholic Church

Courtesy of Pics4Learning. http://pics.tech4learning.com

Oldest living
organization
Conflict between
centralized and
decentralized authority
still exists today
characterized as the need
for unanimity of purpose
yet discretion for local
problems and conditions.

Feudalism and the Middle

Ages

Caused by the development of free people as tenant

farmers, growth of large estates, political disorder,
economic, social, and political chaos.
Tied people to the land, fixed rigid class systems,
established landed aristocracy, stopped education,
caused poverty and ignorance, and stifled human
progress until the Age of reformation.

Commerce

Marco Polo travels to the Far East sees the

Rule of Ten in the Tatar tribes.
Craft Guilds makers of goods; regulated
job access.
Merchant Guilds buyer & sellers of goods.
Pay based on performance did not get paid
until work was returned to the merchant.

Growing Trade

Fra Luca Pacioli

Luca Paciolis system

of double-entry
accounting the first
management
information system
(cash & inventory
position and a check
on cash flow)
developed in 15th
century.

Early Ethical Considerations

Just Price = market price; advocated by Saint Thomas

Aquinas in 13th century.
Trade rules (Code of Ethical Conduct) proposed by
Friar Johannes Nider in 1468:
Goods should be lawful, honorable, and useful.
Price should be just.
Seller should beware.
Speculation was a sin.

Protestant Ethic

Max Weber advocated the belief

that Protestants held different
attitudes toward work. This
spirit of capitalism led to the
Industrial Revolution:
Individual responsibility and
self-control
Work as a means of salvation
Do not waste time or money
Do your best in your calling
Do not consume beyond your
basic need

Max Weber

Criticism of Weber

R.H. Tawneys opinions:

Capitalism existed before the Protestant Ethic.
Capitalism was the cause and justification of
the Protestant Ethic, not the effect.
Economic motivation pressured to change
Church dogma to sanction economic efforts.

Modern Support for Weber

David C. McClelland
Support for Weber in his observations of the influence of
religion on human attitudes toward work and self-reliance.
He found that children of Protestants had higher
n achievement than children of Catholics, and children of
Jews had still higher n achievement.
McClelland said the need for achievement is not restricted
to Protestants and there are wide variations among
individuals which are influenced by the lessons they learn
early in life about work, risk-taking, and self-reliance.

The Liberty Ethic

Differing ideas of the

assumptions made about the
nature of people guiding the
choice of leadership style

Nicolo Machiavelli The Prince

all men are bad and ever
ready to display their vicious
nature (1513)
Thomas Hobbess Leviathan
Some great power must exist
to bring order from chaos.
(1651)

Nicolo Machiavelli

The Liberty Ethic

John Lockes
Concerning Civil
Government (1690)
People have natural rights to
property, contracts, a redress
of grievances, and to freely
choose those who are to
govern
Natural rights are to be
protected through civil law
in order to preserve more
perfectly their life, liberty,
and property
His work set the stage for the
Declaration of Independence

John Locke
Wren,
History of Management Thought

The Market Ethic

Adam Smith Wealth of

Nations (1776)
Market forces were far
more efficient in
allocating resources and
more just in rewarding
individuals who produced
the wealth than
Mercantilism
(government regulated the
economy).

Adam Smith

The Market Ethic

Specialization of labor
Increase performance
Loss of mental
exertion dexterity
at his own particular
trade seemsto be
acquired at the
expense of his
intellectual, social, and
martial virtues

Summary

Early management thought was dominated

by cultural values that were antibusiness
Three forces, or ethics, interacted to provide
for a new age of industrialization
Protestant Ethic

Liberty Ethic
Market Ethic