Evolution of Management Thought

Management is a recent discipline and it draws from the disciplines of Economics, Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, etc. However, as we have seen earlier, management has evolved as an independent discipline.

• Scientific management theory : The focus of this thought is increase in productivity and efficiency through applying scientific methods on the shop floor or workplace. It tries to identify one best way of doing a job; however, emphasizes on worker’s cooperation, management-labor relations and developing workers and motivating. However, the focus is on shop floor efficiency through scientific methods and even motivation is proposed to be executed through piece rate system or paying based on the number of pieces of work produced.
• Operational management theory : This thought was led by Henri Fayol. The thought identified six groups of activities in an organisation, i.e., technical, commercial, financial, security, accounting, and managerial. He recognized the need for teaching management and identified 14 principles in 1916 which enabled the management to grow as a discipline and is therefore often called the ‘father of modern management’.
• Behavioral science theory : The thought was originated by Vilfredo Pareto in 1896, and he researched on organisation and management relationship. Later, Hugo Munsterberg applied psychology to increase industrial production in 1912 and around the same time, Walter Dill Scott applied psychology to advertising, marketing, and personnel in 1910 and 1911. But it was Elton Mayo and F.J Roethlisberger who made an impact on the behavioral science theory through their Hawthorne experiments in Western Electric Company in 1933. These experiments proved that good working relationship with the supervisor and colleagues and the idea of challenge in the job accounted for higher productivity. Challenge is created through setting high goals which cannot be normally achieved but which can be achieved with a little additional effort. These experiments brought to fore the importance of behavioral science in management. Extending the idea sometime in 1946 and 1947, Max Weber propounded the theory of bureaucracy.
• Systems theory : Though the systems theory can be traced to biology, where we have cardiovascular system, nervous system, etc which are fairly independent yet interdependent, it was Chester Barnard who extended this into management area through his writing ‘Functions of the Executive’ in 1938. In systems theory, we perceive that organisations have a number of fairly independent systems such as purchase system, operations system, marketing system, financial system, etc. The working of these are independent, but it has to be integrated by the manager. This theory, perhaps, brings the idea of integration as a key component of management.

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