Evolution of Management Principles: From Taylor to Strategy

Introduction to Management Theory

The study of management has progressed significantly over the past one hundred years. Classical management theory has given way to a number of competing theories, and those that have proven successful have taken hold in business practice today. There has been constant adaptation of ideas and theories to the point where no single correct theory exists; instead, managers draw on a range of concepts and approaches to help improve their organizations.

Classical management was developed during the Industrial Revolution and focused on finding the "one best way" to perform a task. This helped managers with training and task allocation. The concept continues to exist in management today in the form of "best practices." Classical management was relatively simple, and it was not until several decades later that theorists began to expand on its foundations.

Classical and Scientific Management

One of the first major management theorists was Frederick Taylor, who developed the school of scientific management. The Principles of Scientific Management, published in 1911, paved the way for the modern understanding of management. Taylor took what were considered skilled tasks and broke them down into simple jobs, making labor less specialized. This allowed management to deploy labor more flexibly to suit the tasks of the day (NetMBA.com, 2007). Taylor's concepts gave managers greater control over production processes, which until that point were still largely driven by trade-based labor.

Following Taylor's work, a series of management theorists emerged. One of the most important was Henry Ford, known for his work in production management and particularly for developing the assembly line. Ford's approach was grounded in Taylor's ideas about simplifying tasks; his assembly line relied on highly simplified labor that allowed for easy worker training. To compensate for the monotony of the work, Ford offered unusually high wages for the era.

Other notable theorists of this period included Henry Gantt and the husband-and-wife team of Frank and Lillian Gilbreth (Cliff Notes, 2010). Where Taylor had proposed that tasks be studied and optimized, Gantt provided a system of charts — still used today — that allowed managers to organize tasks according to the time required for completion. The objective was to sequence tasks so that goals were achieved in the shortest possible time, given that time is often a significant factor in the cost of a task. The Gilbreths also focused on tasks, but their emphasis was on motion studies. They filmed workers' movements and used the footage to develop optimal work methods for each task, maximizing productivity and minimizing worker stress per unit of output (Ibid.).

While the early theorists focused on task-oriented management, others were simultaneously developing ideas about organizational structure. Many organizations in the late nineteenth century operated as small enterprises with informal, familial structures. Max Weber and other theorists developed ideas about organizational structure that incorporated concepts such as hierarchy, division of labor, specialization, and impersonal relationships between managers and workers (Ibid.).

Organizational Structure and Human Relations

Mary Follett contributed to the body of work by addressing goal orientation. She emphasized "the importance of establishing common goals" for employees. Her work advanced the ideas of Taylor and Ford in an important way: while those theorists were task-oriented, they had simply assumed that tasks were aligned with organizational goals. Follett made this relationship explicit.

Chester Bernard recognized that within any organization, many informal groups exist and that these groups perform a necessary function with respect to communication and leadership (Ibid.). Bernard thereby introduced a political perspective to management theory — one that appears today in our concepts of organizational culture, organizational behavior, and change management.

Peter Drucker was another instrumental figure in the development of management theory. Writing in the 1940s, Drucker was something of a contrarian, focusing on the human elements of management at a time when the field was dominated by task-oriented research and ideas about optimal organizational structure. Following the lesser tradition of incorporating sociology into management theory, Drucker examined how managers could maximize the human potential of organizations. His work proved highly influential in the fields of organizational behavior, motivation, and organizational culture, among other contemporary management disciplines.

Conclusion: Future Directions in Management Thought

Most of today's management theories derive from the influence of Taylor, Drucker, and other management thinkers of the early twentieth century. Since their seminal works, ideas about task management, human resources management, and organizational structure have been refined and adapted to a wide range of organization types. The modern notion of strategic management is essentially a synthesis of a number of different perspectives.