Management
is an applied technique and a closely to many allied fields e.g. economics.
Disciplines devoted to studying people, e.g. psychology, sociology and
political science, have grown and generated an expansion of management
knowledge.
The
development of management thought can, for convenience, by considered to
comprise four main periods – early
influence, the scientific management movement, the human relations movement,
and modern influences, e.g. the revisionist movement.
Early influences
Ancient
records in China and Greece indicate
the importance of organization and administration, but do not much insight into
the principles of management. Outstanding scholars have referred to management
activities in the running of city states and empires.
The
Administration of the Roman Empire was a
complex job. The Romans effectively used many basic management ideas, e.g.
scalar principles and delegation of authority.
Scientific management
In
the years after 1900, conventional management practices were found to be
inadequate to meet demands from the changing economic, social and technological
environment. A few pioneers examined causes of inefficiency and experimented to
try to find more efficient methods and procedures for control. From these basic
experiments a system of management thought developed which come to be known as
scientific management.
The
method was to investigate every operating problem and try to determine the
“best way” to solve the problems, using scientific methods of research. The
concept involved a way of thinking about management.
Administrative management
The
role of administrative management and concluded that all activities that occur
in business organization could be divided in to six groups, i.e.:
- Technical
(production, manufacturing)
- Commercial (buying,
selling, exchange)
- Financial (obtaining
and using capital)
- Security (protection
of property and persons)
- Accounting (balance
sheet, stocktaking, statistic, costing)
- Managerial (planning,
organizing, commanding, co-coordinating, controlling)
The
six groups of activities above are interdependent and that it is the role of
management to ensure all six activities work smoothly to achieve the goals of
an enterprise.
Human relations movement and behavioural science
Industrial
psychology emerged a specific field about 1913, it was concerned with problems
of fatigue and monotony and efficiency in work, as well as in the design of
equipment, lighting and other working conditions. It later dealt with problems
of selecting and training employees and developed techniques of psychological
testing and measurement. Industrial psychology emphasized the study of large
and small groups in industry. The basis of the human relations movement was the
integration of various disciplines, i.e. industrial psychology and sociology,
applied anthropology and social psychology, and was concerned with the human
problems which management encountered.