Evolution of Management Thought

Management practice is as old as human civilization when people started living together in groups. For, every human group requires management, and the history of human beings is full of organizational activities. However, the study of how managers achieve results is predominantly a twentieth-century phenomenon. In the earlier years, management could not get the attention of researchers because the field of business in which the management concepts, were applied was held low, unworthy of study; indifferent approach of other social scientists like economists, sociologists, psychologists, etc, towards management and business organizations; treatment of management as an art not as a science; and the commonly-held belief that managers are born and not made. These factors created a situation where the need for a systematic study of management was not felt. This situation continued till the beginning of the twentieth century.

The situation started changing with the beginning of the 20^th century; especially World War I created the situation where people started thinking of solutions to the problem of how limited resources could be applied in a better way. World War II added further problems to this end. Growing competition and complexity of managing large business organizations further provided the impetus to developing systematic management concepts and principles. In recent years, there has been a worldwide rivalry for markets, power, and progress. The increasingly severe competition has come from such factors as

• technological innovations and their dissemination in business,
• growing technological obsolescence,
• increased in capital investment,
• freedom at national and international markets, and
• increasing buyers’ sovereignty in the markets.

Besides the growing competition in business, the complexity of managing business also has increased due to

• the increasing size of business organizations,
• the high degree of division of labor and specialization,
• increased government regulations and controls to make business more socially oriented,
• organized union activities to put pressures on management, and
• the pressure of various conflicting interest groups to meet their demands from the organization.

Both these factors – growing competition and complexity in managing a business – have demanded efficiency in the management process which can come not merely by trial and error methods but by developing and applying sound management concepts and principles.

These factors emerged gradually which attracted the attention of a wide variety of intellectuals – economists, sociologists, psychologists, anthropologists, mathematicians, and management practitioners – to study the organizations and processes through which these organizations could be made more effective. Each of these groups of intellectuals viewed the organizations and the processes therein in a particular way and made recommendations accordingly.

This led to the emergence of a variety of orientations and approaches in management; some making clear demarcation from others, some overlapping others. Similarly, a particular approach did not really start with the end of the previous one so far as the time period is concerned; there was considerable overlapping of time too, as shown in

Table:

Another classification of management thought and approaches is in the form of classical, neoclassical, and modern. The classical approach includes scientific management and administrative/operational management. The neoclassical approach includes the human relations approach and some relevant parts of the social systems approach, the decision theory approach includes the systems approach, contingency approach, and some relevant portions of the above approaches are not included in the neoclassical approach. However, this classification is time-specific because what is modern in today’s context, may not remain the same in the future.

EARLY CONTRIBUTIONS

Before the systematic study of management which started close to the 19^th century, contributions to the field came from a variety of sources. For example, the concept of organization and administration existed in Egypt in 1300 B.C. Confucius’s parables included suggestions for proper public administration and admonitions to choose honest, unselfish, and capable public officers long before Christ. Kautilya has offered sound principles of state administration in 320 B.C. Roman Catholic Church introduced the concept of staff personnel in church administration which was further carried on by military organizations. The cameralists, a group of German and Austrian public administrators and intellectuals, emphasized systematic administration as a source of strength during the 16^th to 18^th centuries. These contributions provided some insights into how resources could be utilized more effectively. However, these contributions were outside the field of business and other economic organizations.

In the field of business organizations, some stray contributions have come from Robert Owen, James Watt, Charles Babbage, and Henry Town. While Owen emphasized personnel aspects in management and advocated a number of benefits to employees, others concentrated on developing concepts relating to the effective utilization of resources at the shop floor level. Their contributions came bit by bit and in a haphazard manner and have failed to stimulate study management as a distinct discipline. However, their ideas created awareness about managerial problems. By the end of the 19^th century, a stage was set for taking the systematic study of management, and the beginning was made by Taylor in the early part of the 20^th century which took the shape of scientific management.