A Timeline of Management

1880 - Scientific Management

Frederick Taylor decides to time each and every worker at the Midvale Steel
Company. His view of the future becomes highly accurate:

"In the past man was first. In the future the system will be first."

In scientific management the managers were elevated while the workers'

roles were negated.

"Science, not rule of thumb," said Taylor.

The decisions of supervisors, based upon experience and intuition, were no

longer important. Employees were not allowed to have ideas of responsibility.
Yet the question remains -- is this promotion of managers to center-stage
justified?

1929 - Taylorism

The Taylor Society publishes a revised and updated practitioner's manual:

Scientific Management in American Industry.

1932 - The Hawthorne Studies

Elton Mayo, was the first to question the behavioural assumptions of

scientific management. The studies concluded that human factors were often
more important than physical conditions in motivating employees to greater
productivity.

1946 - Organization Development

Social scientist Kurt Lewin launches the Research Center for Group Dynamics
at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His contributions in change
theory, action research, and action learning earn him the title of the "father
of organization development." Lewin is best known for his work in the field of
organization behavior and the study of group dynamics. His research
discovered that learning is best facilitated when there is a conflict between
immediate concrete experience and detached analysis within the individual.

1949 - Sociotechnical Systems Theory

A group of researchers from London's Tavistock Institute of Human Relations,

led by Eric Trist, studied a South Yorkshire coal mine in 1949. Their research
leads in the development of the Sociotechnical Systems Theory which
considers both the social and the technical aspects when designing jobs. It
marks a 180-degree departure from Frederick Taylor's scientific
management. There are four basic components to sociotechnical theory:

• environment subsystem
• social subsystem
• technical subsystem
• organizational design.

1954 - Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory is published in his book Motivation and

Personality. This provides a framework for gaining employees' commitment.

1954 - Leadership/Management

Drucker writes The Practice of Management and introduces the 5 basic roles
of managers. He writes, "The first question in discussing organization
structure must be: What is our business and what should it be? Organization
structure must be designed so as to make possible the attainment of
objectives of the business for five, ten, fifteen years hence."

1959 - Hygiene and Motivational Factors

 Frederick Herzberg developed a list of factors which are closely
based on Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, except it more closely
related to work. Hygiene factors must be present in the job
before motivators can be used to stimulate the workers.

1960s - Organization Development

In the 1950s and 1960s a new, integrated approach originated known as

Organization Development (OD): the systematic application of behavioral
science knowledge at various levels (group, intergroup, and total
organization) to bring about planned change

1960 - Theory X and Theory Y

Douglas McGregor's Theory X and Theory Y principles influence the design

and implementation of personnel policies and practices.

Late 1960s - Action Learning

An Unheralded British academic was invited to try out his theories in Belgium
-- it led to an upturn in the Belgian economy. "Unless your ideas are ridiculed
by experts they are worth nothing," says the British academic Reg Revens,
creator of action learning:

L = P + Q ([L] Learning occurs through a combination of

programmed knowledge [P] andthe ability to ask insightful
questions [Q])

Note that his work has had little impact on this side of the ocean, although it
remains one of the best ways to learn and to improve an organization.

1964 - Management Grid

Robert Blake and Jane Mouton develop a management model that

conceptualizes management styles and relations. Their Grid uses two axis.
"Concern for people" is plotted using the vertical axis and "Concern for task"
is along the horizontal axis. The notion that just two dimensions can describe
a managerial behavior has the attraction of simplicity.

1978 - Performance Technology

Tom Gilbert publishes Human Competence: Engineering Worthy

Performance. It describes the behavioral-engineering model which become
the bible of performance technology. Gilbert wrote that accomplishment
specification is the only logical way to define performance requirements.
Accomplishments are the best starting points for developing performance
standards. In addition, accomplishments are the best tools for the
development of performance-based job descriptions as they allow
management to describe the measurement that is important to the
organization, specific to the position, and observable.

1978 - Excellence

McKinsey's John Larson asks colleague Tom Peters to step in at the last
minute and make a presentation that leads to "In Search of Excellence." Thus
Tom Peters spawns the birth of the "management guru business."

1990 - Learning Organization

Peter Senge popularized the "Learning Organization" in The Fifth Discipline:

The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. He describes the
organization as an organism with the capacity to enhance its capabilities and
shape its own future. A learning organization is any organization (e.g. school,
business, government agency) that understands itself as a complex, organic
system that has a vision and purpose. It uses feedback systems and
alignment mechanisms to achieve its goals. It values teams and leadership
throughout the ranks. He called for five disciplines:

• System Thinking
• Personal Mastery
• Mental Models
• Shared Vision
• Team Learning.

1995 - Ethics

On December 11, 1995 a fire burned most of Malden Mills to the

ground and put 3,000 people out of work. Most of the 3,000 thought
they were out of work permanently. CEO Aaron Feuerstein says, "This is
not the end" -- he spent millions keeping all 3,000 employees on the
payroll with full benefits for 3 months until he could get another factory
up and running. Why? He answers, "The fundamental difference is that
I consider our workers an asset, not an expense."

Business Process Management (BPR) - 2000

This is actually a slow advance in process management:

• Record Management
• Workflow - 1970
 • Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) - 1990
• Business Process Management (BPR) - 2000

NOTES

copyright Created November 19, 2004

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