The old story (re)told: reflections about Management genesis

Abstract

This paper aims to reduce problems involving the lack of historical perspective in academic thought concerning Management. Thus, we discuss in a way that is unusual in the academic mainstream the historical and social conditions that were important in inducing the rise of Management as a modern institution, in addition to the factors that conditioned its dissemination. We built our discussion revisiting some historians' seminal works, specifically those Marxists and Institutionalists who are interested in capitalist industrialization and in its consequent institutionalization of Management knowledge. First of all, it is in the historical constitution of industrial capitalism that we found the fundamental social transformations to improve modern management practices and modern work organization. The second step was the specific work requirements of American and European industrial engineers. They were presented in a specific debating arena, i.e., its professional association and engineering journals. These work demands intensified the debate about a particular agenda for Management principles, a social process of which Taylor as the most famous participant. In conclusion, we present some implications about the historical development of Management.

Downloads