The Evolution of Management Beginning with the Industrial Revolution
Management as we know it into being in the late nineteenth century, during the industrial revolution. Before the advent of this period, most societies were mostly agrarian with the majority of the people living in rural areas. Some families carried out production as an occupation, although with time some people became more specialized in one job or another. The main basis of management was based upon two main assumptions. One was that labor was untrustworthy and would only perform under a tight leash. Secondly, they considered labor to the main factor of production that could be easily controlled. This therefore meant that the cost of production could be reduced by making them put more effort into work, work for longer periods and for the same amount of pay, or even less.( Ukessays, n.d. Industrial Revolution & Management Theory. Retrieved from http://www.ukessays.com/essays/business-theory/industrial-revolution-management-theory.php). There was a need to change the management theories in order to increase efficiency. This just means utilizing an organization’s resources more profitably. ( slideshare, n.d. Chapter 2 The Evolution Of Management Theory. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/bsetm/chapter-2-the-evolution-of-management-theory).
During the revolution, both small-scale and large scale production factories were managed by engineers who had technical knowhow and little else. There were therefore challenges when it take to handling people. Problems also arose as is the norm when a large number of people are working together. The main concern was which worker-task arrangement would bring about the best results. Research done by Adam Smith showed...
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...ioning) ( slideshare, n.d. Chapter 2 The Evolution Of Management Theory. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/bsetm/chapter-2-the-evolution-of-management-theory)
The Hawthorne Studies
The Hawthorne effect refers to the discovery that a leader’s behavior as well as the leadership style has the ability to influence a worker’s performance) ( slideshare, n.d. Chapter 2 The Evolution Of Management Theory. Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/bsetm/chapter-2-the-evolution-of-management-theory).
These are some of the various aspects which have undergone changes and some of the people tat influenced such. The evolution is not over yet. Various people are still coming up with new ideas of how to improve on these theories. In this way, the evolution is a continuous process that does not end with the present, but rather gets more refined as we much into the future.
In 1800s, the industrial revolution spread across the United States, which significantly change the way of manufacturing and labor society function. More and more Europeans were transferred to America, which increased the population of America. In addition, the larger transportation and communication made the old type of labor conventions and household manufactory became outdated. At that time, the “Artisan Republicanism” was extraordinary popular in the United States, people work depended on their workmanships, and people were also able to be their own boss on the job. However, factory based workplaces replaced the traditional patterns of work, which significantly increased the efficiency of manufactory industry, but on the other hand, labors met big problem, not only on the status of a master in their field, but also on the lower wages and longer working hours. American workers found that they had become “wage slaves”. In response of these changes, laborers started protesting the new revolution, resisted changes of older traditions of work,
Tsoukas, H. (1994), “What is management? An outline of a metatheory”, British Journal of Management, vol.5, pg.289-301
The evolution of the human species has significantly changed during the course of evolution to what is now the modern day Homo sapiens. Some of the changes that have occurred through the evolution are bipedalism, changes in body features such as brow ridges, and an increase in brain capacity.
The evolution of the human species has significantly changed during the course of evolution to what is now the modern day Homo sapiens. Some of the changes that have occurred through the evolution are bipedalism, changes in body features such as brow ridges, and an increase in brain capacity.
Wren. (2005). The History of Management Thought (5th ed.). Danvers, MA: Wiley & Sons. (Original work published 1976)
The evolution of humans was (and is) a very important time. The first being of evolution was Australopithecus Afarensis or “Lucy”. Then we moved on to Homo erectus and Homo Neanderthal. When the weather got hotter, we were Homo Sapiens Sapiens and finally, the modern man. This evolution did not happen overnight. It took millions of years. The past is hardly forgotten, but the imminent is next.
The evolution of management though the decades can be divided into two major sections. One of the sections is the classical approach. Under the classical approach efficiency and productivity became a critical concern of the managers at the turn of the 20th century. One of the approaches from the classical time period were systematic management which placed more emphasis on internal operations because managers were concerned with meeting the growth in demand brought on by the Industrial revolution. As a result managers became more concerned with physical things than towards the people therefore systematic management failed to lead to production efficiency. This became apparent to an engineer named Frederick Taylor who was the father of Scientific Management. Scientific Management was identified by four principles for which management should develop the best way to do a job, determine the optimum work pace, train people to do the job properly, and reward successful performance by using an incentive pay system. Scientifi...
A diversified company has two levels of strategy: business unit (or competitive) strategy and corporate (or companywide) strategy. Competitive strategy concerns how to create competitive advantage in each of the businesses in which a company competes. Corporate strategy concerns two different questions: what businesses the corporation should be in and how the corporate office should manage the array of business units.
With reference to a contemporary example discuss the relevance of Taylor’s Principles of Scientific Management to organisations today.
Evolution is a complex process by which organisms change over time; it is a process in which traits are passed from one generation to the next (Darwin and Beer 1996:108-139). Evolutionists have tried to explain the loss of functions of different organs, for centuries. The two most prominent scientists that studied evolution were Jean-Baptist Lamarck and Charles Darwin. Lamarck’s theory of inheritance of acquired characters and Darwin’s variational evolution were the most important theories that attempted to explain evolution before the discovery of genes during the beginning of the twentieth century.
There are several theories that examine an organization and it’s approach to managing work in an effort to develop efficiency and increase production. Two classical approaches to management are Taylor’s scientific management theory and Weber's bureaucratic management theory. Both men are considered pioneers of in the study of management.
During the early 20th century the factory system started to flourish, and many managers were rather concerned as to how to organize the workforce. Managers were required to find new ways to maximize both the machinery and the workers, this led to the centralization of both labor and equipment in factories, and division of specialized labor.
Scientific Management theory arose from the need to increase productivity in the U.S.A. especially, where skilled labor was in short supply at the beginning of the twentieth century. The only way to expand productivity was to raise the efficiency of workers.
Miles, R. (1975) Theories of Management: Implications for Organisational Behaviour and Development. McGraw-Hill, New York.
Without evolution, and the constant ever changing environment, the complexity of living organisms would not be as it is. Evolution is defined as a process that results in heritable changes in a population spread over many generations (8).Scientists believe in the theory of evolution. This belief is based on scientific evidence that corroborates the theory of evolution. In Figure 1 the pictures of the skulls depict the sequence of the evolution of Homo-sapiens. As the figure shows, man has evolved from our common ancestor that is shared by homo-sapiens. The change of diet of homo-sapiens over time has thought to contribute to the change in jaw structure and overall skull shape.