EVOLUTION OF MANAGEMENT THOUGHT
How to manage activities involving large number of people must have been known even in the ancient past. There are evidence all over the world about the practice of management since the dawn of civilisation. Without proper management it would have been impossible to undertake consrruction of the Egyptian pyramids, or the Great Wall and the irrigation canals of China. However, organised activities in earlier times mainly required engaging people for manual operations and getting work done under strict supervision. On the other hand, work in cottage industries which flourished during the middle ages mainly involved engagement of family members and apprentices and application of traditional skills with simple tools and implements. '
Far reaching changes took place in the organisation of economic activities with the industrial revolution at the turn of the 18th century. Scientific and technical inventions paved the way of large scale factories using mechanical power and employing hundreds Approaches to the Study of of people. The systems of transport and communication were also transformed in the ' Management process and enabled producers to undertake distribution of goods in ever widening markets. With the growth in size and increasing complexity of organisations, the nature and scope of managerial functioils have also undergone considerable changes. The task of management no longer consists of supervising simple operalions and taking routine . decisions. It involves procurement of physical, human and monetary resources as well as their effective use for achieving the organisational objectives. The process of management and the various functions involved have thus received increasing attention of management experts over time.
Early Thinkers
Thinking on management as a separate field of learning and practice began early in the 19th centuiy. It was at this time that persons like Robert Owen, Charles Babbage, Metcalf and Towne expressed their ideas on the. ways and means of making management practices more effective and efficient.
Robert Owen, who owned and managed several textile mills in Scotland, emphasised the importance of human relations in' management. He was very much against the existing practices of workers being employed in factories to perform manual work for as long as thirteen hours per day, employment of child workers even below the pge of ten, absence of housing facilities, etc. ltle introduced many reforn~s in his own factories, reducing working hours, improving working conditions providing housing facilities, and arranging ' supply of goods at cheaper rales through company stores. On the bisis of his own experience, he advocated that investment in human resources was more profitable than investmenl in nlachinery and other physical resomces. He, therefore, recorninended that indusrtialists should change their attitude towards the workers and devote more attention to their well-being.
Charles Babbage was a professor at Cambridge. Having studied the management of factories in the United Kingdom and France, .he observed that einployees and owners were totally ignorant of the basic tools of scientific melhods, they were guided purely by tradition, estimates and imagination and the owner-managers never took decisions on the basis of factual analysis. According to Babbage, it is essential to apply scientific principles to work processes for increasing productivity and reducing expenses. In his writings, Babbage emphasised the importance of division of labour on the basis of skills, and also stressed the necessity of replacing manual operations by machinery. As the manager of an army arsenal,
Henry Metcalf held the view that the science of adniinistralion ought to be based on principles evolved by recording observations and experiences. The art of management, according to him, should be based on accumulated observitions which are on record and are presented systematically. His book on cost of manufactures and administration of workshops suggested a iystem of control with the help of work records maintained in Time Cards and Material Cards and a method of automatic actions: Henry Robinson Townc was the chief execulive of a manufacture company. His contribution to management lay in defining the role of a manager as a combination of the roles of an administrator, an engineer, and R statistician. Management of industrial work, according to Towne, required combination of different qualities of good businessmen and good engineers. He succeeded in motivating engineers to study . management, and advised them to be cost-conscious. At the same time, he emphasised that the process of management has multiple dimensions and ehgineer-managers must be aware of it.
Early thinker on management made an attempt to suggest improvements in the. functioning of manufacturing organisations by different means. In that process the thinkers also provided a new background for manageinen[ in practice. Growth of business and industry proceeded at a rapid pace in the Western European countries and the USA throughout,the 19th century, Increased competitiorr in the domestic and'intemational rnaikets during this period drew the attention of management towards the necessity of improving productivity and efficiency of theil undertakings.
Reference:
UNIT 2: APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF MANAGEMENT https://egyankosh.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/13282/1/Unit-2.pdf
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