Just as the world is constantly changing, management thought, theory and practise continues to change too. It has been remodelled and freshened through innovation. The invention of new technologies, countrys becomimng closer due to globalisation ensures that people and management will need to evolve. This essay follows along the path of management history while examining the evolutionary development of management thinking and how current management practices have evolved from this development.
Management and its basic practice can be tracked back to 3000 B.C., but it was not until the 1800's when large organisations emerged that it started to get serious attention.
From looking at the history of management it can be concluded that people have been organised to work together towards planned goals for a long time. Their efforts were controlled and co-ordinated to reach the desired goals. Scientific management was not founded until well into the industrial revolution, its history has been around well before the name itself. The term Scientific management has been invented fairly recently, the application of scientific management principles has been around for a lot longer. .
The industrial revolution was in full steam by the seventeenth century, agricultural methods had improved in Europe and surpluses were generated. These surpluses were used as trade and trade routes were expanding on a global scale. Technical advances were a being made replacing workers in a variety of fields.
Factories were springing up everywhere and the agricultural and technical improvements along with expanding trade/markets and growing population created opportunities for entrepreneurs and businessmen to invest. With these new factories came the need to improve work methods quality and productivity.
Managers of these factories were forced to develop ideas and one major idea was the notion that workers should now be responsible for only part of the product rather than the whole product.