History of Management

  • Frederick Taylor and Scientific Management

    Frederick Taylor and Scientific Management
    The Scientific Management thought era started in 1890 with Frederick W. Taylor and lasted until 1940. This theory of management tasks of the employees were specified and measured. These tasks were standardized as much as they could be and workers were either rewarded or punished for their work. This management approach worked better for companies with assembley lines. After workers realized the benefits of scientific management they would have a better mental attitude toward work. (Pindur, 1995)
  • The Gilbreth's Contribution to Management

    The Gilbreth's Contribution to Management
    Frank and Lillian Gilbreth made their mark on management with their time and motion studies. From their studies, the husband and wife team developed the laws of motion economy. These laws involved principles dealing with use of the human body and workplace arrangement. This type of management was based more on management organization and is considered to be where modern management style came from (Pindur, 1995).
  • Henri Fayol and the Administrative Approach to Management

    Henri Fayol and the Administrative Approach to Management
    Henri Fayol was a French miner who had realized that management was a common activity for all human undertakings. He said that all of these undertakings required five key functions which were planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating, and controlling. He was a major player in the history of management from his time in this field from 1888 until his death (Bosman, 2009).
  • Henry L. Gantt Updates Taylor's Incentive System

    Henry L. Gantt Updates Taylor's Incentive System
    Henry Gantt was a partner of Taylor at Bethlehem Steel Works. During the early 1900's he went on to make his own incentive program that he thought was better than Taylor's system. His system paid workers higher wages if they were able to finish their work in a time less than the allowed time. For more of an incentive in the field of management, he offered bigger incentives for supervisors (Pindur, 1995).
  • Henry Ford Invents Model T

    Henry Ford Invents Model T
    Henry Ford founded Ford Motor Company in 1903 and by 1908 he invented the Model T. Owning and automobile at this time was a sign of wealth, however, Ford was going to change that. In order to be able to sell cars at a lower price he would have to cut costs and increase efficiency. It took about 12 and a half hours to produce a Model T. He would use business methods by other in the history of management to increase productivity. (Grodsky)
  • Max Weber and Bureaucratic Management

    Max Weber and Bureaucratic Management
    Weber invented a system where each individual was given certain occupations and resposibilities in an office. Weber's bureaucratic system meant that each office was accountable to the next one above with each pursuing their own goals. The people in each office were given their job resposiblities upon hiring and were given promotions due to seniority or achievement. This form of management is still used many places today (Pindur, 1995).
  • Hugo Munsterberg and Human Relations

    Hugo Munsterberg and Human Relations
    Hugo Munsterberg was a German psychologist and was considered the father of industrial psychology. He saw a connection between industrial psychology/human behavior and scientific management. He was a big fan of Frederick Taylor. This was important to mangement because the connection between those things increased efficiency (Pindur, 1995).
  • Mary Parker Follett

    Mary Parker Follett
    One of Follett's earliers works was on the theory of conflict management. She thought that by resovling important differences, it could contribute to achievement of organizational goals (Pindur, 1995).
  • Behavioral Management Movement

    Behavioral Management Movement
    Starting in the 1920's many people in management saw scientific management as short sighted. People who felt this way thought that human aspects of business were being ignored. So this behavioral management movement focused on human feelings as well as leadership and how motivated people are to work. These are all things that managers need to look out for (Pindur, 1995).
  • Model T Production Picks Up

    Model T Production Picks Up
    In order for Ford to increase production he brought in theorists like Frederick Taylor. From this Ford focused on increasing effeiency by mechanizing when he could and breaking down tasks into more manageable sizes for employees. Using this method each group of people had their own tasks and would then pass on the part they worked on down the line until the product was finished. By 1920 a Model T was being made every minute. (Grodsky).
  • The Hawthorne Experiments

    The Hawthorne Experiments
    The name Hawthorne studies or experiments were given the name because they were done at Western Electric's Hawthorne plant which was near Chicago. The purpose of the studies was to show the relationship between the amount of lighting in the workplace and how productive the workers were due to the lighting. They found that the lighting didn't have any direct effect on productivity. Eventually the consensus was that people worked harder when they thought management was watching (Grodsky).
  • The Human Relations Movement and Elton Mayo

    The Human Relations Movement and Elton Mayo
    Elton Mayo was a Harvard professor who thought that managers needed to become more people-oriented. he used the Hawthorne studies to conclude that emotional factors were more important than logical factors. He found that participation in social groups had a very strong impact on worker productivity (Bosman, 2009).
  • Luther Gulick

    Luther Gulick
    Luther Gulick was one of the men who expanded on the work of Henri Fayol. He came up with a popular acronym for the seven activities of management that is still used today. The acronym is POSDCORB which stands for planning, organizing, staffing, directing, co-ordinating, reporting and budgeting. He agreed with many aspects of Taylor and and Weber from their studies, but added his own views. He was the man behind the idea of departmentalizing (Pindur, 1995).
  • Maslow's Effect on Management

    Maslow's Effect on Management
    Abraham Maslow created a hierarchy of needs that was a five-tiered model. From this model he realized that people are more motivated by certain needs that they have. He defined motivation as the willingness to exert high levels of effort to reach certain goals. Then the model ranked these needs from lowest to highest. Maslow's model was first used in the business world for job design (Pindur, 1995).
  • Frederick Hertzberg and the Motivation-Hygiene Theory

    Frederick Hertzberg and the Motivation-Hygiene Theory
    Hertzberg used this theory to study job satisfaction. This two factor theory was based on redesigning and improving employee positions to increase motivation and involvement. He used satisfiers and dissatisfiers as the two factors of his studies. He used various aspects of workers lives such as pay, workinng conditions and good personal policies to use as motivation factors. He concluded that while these things are good for workers, they dont necessarily motivate workers (Pindur, 1995).
  • Management and Behavior Approaches

    Management and Behavior Approaches
    When he was first published, Herbert A. Simon strongly disagreed with the principle approach to management. He argued that the principles approach was inconsistent and wanted a systems approach to administration that was based on decision making. He believed that people who think rationally did not optimize their situations but were making decisions due to what their environment said they could or could not do. Going for what was good enough but not optimal (Pindur, 1995).
  • Douglas McGregor and Theory X and Y

    Douglas McGregor and Theory X and Y
    McGregor believed that managers used two motivation approaches. One was negative, called Theory X which was based on managers using direction and control. Another aspect of this theory was that managers needed to threaten in order to motivate. On the other hand Theory Y suggested that people are capable of being responsible and mature. He conclueded that making workers happy was the best way to motivate (Pindur, 1995).
  • Charles A. Lindblom

    Charles A. Lindblom
    Lindblom disagreed with the rational models of decision making that were popular at this time. He released his famous book "The Science of Muddling Through" and said that rational models did not work and that decision makers should depend on small, incremental decisions (Pindur, 1995).
  • Quantitative Management Movement

    Quantitative Management Movement
    Quantitative management is adapting mathematical models and processes to management situations. Quantitative management got its start in the second World War. This form of management uses statistics and various models to help managers solve problems. Also they use applications of these things to make their job easier (Pindur, 1995).
  • Modern Management Movement

    Modern Management Movement
    The modern management approach is ongoing today and evolving due to many theories. There are many approaches included in modern management. Those include the process approach, contingency approach, strategic management approach, and the excelence approach. The classical, behavioural, and quantitative movements were large components in the modern management movement (Pindur, 1995).