A History of Management Thought

This book charts the evolution of management as an intellectual discipline, from ancient times to the present day. Contemporary management challenges, including sustainability, technology and data, and legitmacy are analysed through an historical lens and with the benefit of new case studies. Essential reading as a core textbook in management history, the book is also valuable supplementary reading across the humanities and social sciences.

Of all the sciences and social sciences, management is the one that most deliberately turns its back on the past. Yet management as we know it today did not spring into life fully formed. Management has more than just a present; it also has a past, and a future, and all three are inextricably linked. This book charts the evolution of management as an intellectual discipline, from ancient times to the present day.

Contemporary management challenges, including sustainability, technology and data, and legitimacy are analysed through an historical lens and with the benefit of new case studies. The author helps readers understand how the evolution of management ideas has interacted with changes in society.

By framing management's history as one of challenge and response, this new edition is the perfect accompaniment for students and scholars seeking meaningful study in the business school and beyond. Essential reading as a core textbook in management history, the book is also valuable supplementary reading across the humanities and social sciences.

'Witzel has done it again: enlivening every-day management with the almost tangible presence of thinkers from the past; suddenly we know ourselves to be companions of managers, philosophers and problem-solvers of all times and places. His acute analysis shows why we intuitively recoil from some, or feel a bond with others; His care for what it is to be a human being trying to organise and get things done is the red thread that spans the centuries. Big thinking on a human scale at its best.' - Jonathan Gosling, Professor Emeritus, University of Exeter, UK 'This history illuminates. Witzel's wonderfully-stuffed sourcebook shows business has always been about people and profit, unchanged in millennia. But old principles must suit new times. Business's scale is now unprecedented. It is also increasingly separated from public purpose, its technologies and financialization problematic. The reader will learn a lot about the core challenge: harnessing peoples' imagination and skill in the pursuit of profit.' - J.-C. Spender, Research Professor, Kozminski University, Poland

Autorentext

Morgen Witzel is a Fellow of the Centre for Leadership Studies, University of Exeter, UK. He is the author of more than twenty books including the international best sellers Doing Business in China (Routledge) and Tata: The Evolution of a Corporate Brand (Penguin).

Inhalt

1. Introduction 2. Early Management Thought 3. Management Thought in the Age of Commerce 4. Management Thought in an Age of Enlightenment 5. Scientific Management 6. European Management Thought 7. Management Thought and Human Relations 8. The Divisionalisation of Management Thought 9. From Scientific Management to Management Science 10. The Age of the Management Gurus 11. Asian Management Thought 12. Management Thought in the twenty-first century 13. Conclusions