The history of the development of management
Article summary: On the basis of describing the three main lines of the development of management, this article proposes the "Diamond Model" for the development of management theory and knowledge accumulation. , further specifically analyzed from a historical perspective how factors such as scientific and technological progress, cultural environment, institutional changes, management innovators, and wars affect the development of management theory and knowledge innovation, thereby revealing the historical logic of the development of management.
Keywords: Historical logic of the development of management
Human management practices appeared almost simultaneously with the dawn of human civilization, and research work exploring the laws of management activities can be traced back to China in BC and ancient Greece. Some discussions on management laws can be found in the works of ancient Greek philosophers such as Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Sun Tzu's "The Art of War" in the 5th century BC is considered to be a work that explores the general laws of strategy. It is the earliest and most systematic work on strategic management. But it’s a drag? A low-end car with a low head and a core of rhymes. It only happened in the middle of 2000. It is generally believed that in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the American Taylor began to use stopwatches to study how to improve work efficiency, while the Frenchman Fayol had been thinking about the universality and independent laws of organizational management activities, which marked the beginning of management science. The birth of. In the past 100 years, management has developed from an unspeakable informal activity to an independent profession. People not only realize the universality of management activities - management exists in almost all human organizations and human organized activities, and conduct normative analysis and research on management activities and issues from various possible angles and using various possible methods. As management science knowledge is widely used to guide management practice and management efficiency is greatly improved, the process of scientific management is continuously promoted, and the management knowledge system is constantly expanding. It is no wonder that some people say that the past 20th century was the century of management. [1] After a full century of development, management has developed into a complex subject with a huge knowledge system and disciplinary branches, occupying an important position in the process of human civilization and the treasure house of knowledge.
1. Three clues to the development of management
In the past more than a century, management theory has gone through the classical management theory stage, the behavioral science stage and the modern management theory stage. , many schools such as social systems school, decision theory school, management process school, systems management school, empiricism school, management science school, manager role school, contingency theory school, etc. have emerged, forming a huge management knowledge system. Faced with the huge knowledge system and numerous schools formed over the past century, researchers in the history of management and management thought have been trying to summarize the logical main line of the development of management. However, due to the complexity of the topics concerned by management classics over the past century, including management and managers, leadership, organization and personnel, efficiency, market and customers, competition and strategy, innovation and change, the organizational logic of modern companies and the internationalization of management culture and many other aspects. [2] From the perspective of management discipline classification, strategic management, human resource management, production management, marketing management, organizational management, quality management, etc. constitute the classic content of management, and these disciplines are constantly enriched and refined. ization, crossover and development, new disciplines and branches of management are constantly emerging. Therefore, so far, there is no recognized historical logic line for the development of management.
From the existing literature, there are three main categories of management development clues summarized by researchers. The first category is divided according to the content composition of management. For example, the development path of management is divided into organizational theory research. The evolution path of research (from classical organizational theory, organizational behavior, organizational sociology, leadership science to corporate culture, etc.), the evolution path of management methods and methods research (from scientific management theory, behavioral science, management science theory, decision-making theory to production management Information management methods, etc.), the evolution path of business theory research (from manufacturer theory, industrial organization, marketing, consumer theory to strategic management).
[3] The second category is divided according to the generation method of management knowledge. For example, the formation and development of management are divided into three clues, namely applied management (management principles and methods summarized from management practice), theoretical management Management theory (management theory based on basic assumptions about human nature) and experimental management (management theory based on management cases). [4] The third category is divided according to factors influencing the development of management. According to Lane, the famous management historian, the development of management theory is closely linked to the cultural environment. The development of management theory is both a process and a product of the cultural environment. [5] Based on this, some scholars believe that there are three management development trajectories. One is the scientism clue based on scientific culture, starting from Taylor's scientific management, including social system theory, management process theory, system management theory, and management science. theory and decision-making management theory, etc.; the second is the humanistic clue based on the foundation of modern human nature, starting from Mayo's research on "social man", including individual behavior theory, group behavior theory, organizational behavior theory and management ethics theory, etc. ; The third is the clue of culturalism based on the cultural model, starting from Drucker's management practice theory, including organizational culture theory, strategic management theory, change management theory, knowledge management, etc. [6] Also based on the understanding that the cultural environment has an important influence on the development of management science, there is another division of clues for the development of management science, namely, the classical organizational management theory based on the capitalist spirit as the cultural foundation, and the environmental and regional culture. There is a jungle of modern management theories based on (mainly American culture) and contemporary management theories based on the penetration of Eastern and Western cultures. [7]
Obviously, the third category analyzes the clues of the development of management from the perspective of environmental factors affecting the development of management theory, and the first two categories divide the development of management from the perspective of management content and the generation of management knowledge. Compared with clues, they have temporal inheritance, while the first two types of management development clues are parallel in time. From the historical perspective of management development, it is undoubtedly more valuable to analyze the clues of management development from the perspective of environmental factors affecting the development of management theory. However, simply attributing environmental factors to cultural environment is too general and incomplete.
2. The “Diamond Model” of the Development of Management Knowledge
How is the huge amount of management knowledge generated and developed? Throughout the history of the development of management theory, we believe that the influencing factors on the emergence and development of management theory and management knowledge can be summarized into two major categories. One is long-term factors that continue to act, which mainly include institutional changes, scientific and technological progress and culture. The three traditional factors reflect the role of institutional environment, scientific and technological environment and cultural environment. [8] The other type is temporary factors with short-term effects, such as wars and other major emergencies (such as economic crises). These two types of factors act on the active subjects of management theory and knowledge innovation, including entrepreneurs and other management practitioners or teams, professional management researchers or teams, professional management consultants or teams, etc. These people propose management theories and methods and innovate. management knowledge and practice new management ideas, thereby promoting the continuous development of management science. This process can be expressed as the “Diamond Model” of factors influencing the development of management knowledge as shown in the figure below (Figure 1).
Figure 1 “Diamond Model” of management knowledge development
What the “Diamond Model” attempts to show is that technological progress, institutional changes and cultural traditions interact with the innovative activities of management innovators. The role ultimately promotes the development of management theory and the innovation and accumulation of management knowledge, while wars and other temporary major events also have a short-term promotion effect on the entire process.
The factors of scientific and technological progress here specifically include the development of scientific theories for understanding the world and the innovation of technical methods and tools to transform the world. Scientific development continues to provide humans with ideas and methods for correctly understanding the world, while technological progress continues to provide humans with tools to transform the world. and methods; institutional change refers to changes in formal rules related to macro-social, economic, legal, political and micro-specific economic organization operations. These rule changes will guide and constrain people's behavioral choices; while cultural traditions describe the long-term Unlike the informal rules that guide and restrict people's behavior, which can change quickly in institutional changes, the formation and change of cultural traditions is often a long-term gradual process. The development of management theory and the accumulation of management knowledge here include not only the rich development of management knowledge embodied in various forms such as management ideas, theories, methods, etc., and the development of management science, but also include solving various practical management problems and improving management efficiency. Innovation and development of management practices. This corresponds to the connotation of the scientific management process, which includes the scientific management process in three aspects: management practice level, management theoretical issue research level, and management discipline development level. In other words, the above-mentioned "Diamond Model" is not only a model of factors influencing the development of management theory and management knowledge in a general sense, but also a model of factors influencing the process of scientific management. This model is established based on the historical process of scientific management. Therefore, from the perspective of the history of scientific management, this model basically describes the logical relationship of the development of scientific management. It can be considered as a historical logic diagram of the generation and development of management knowledge. .
3. Analysis of specific influencing factors on the development of management knowledge
Based on the above-mentioned "Diamond Model", we need to analyze one by one how each factor in the model specifically affects the development and management of management knowledge scientific process.
1． Factors of scientific and technological progress
Although attempts to explore the universal laws of management activities and improve the efficiency of management activities can be traced back to ancient times, the process of scientific management really began at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. It is the science and technology after the industrial revolution. The results are widely used in business organizations. Since the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century, it is generally believed that the cycle of technological progress can be divided into five cycles, each cycle or stage lasting about half a century, which is the Kondratieff long wave in economics, accompanied by successive cycles of technological progress. , the process of scientific management continues to advance. (1) In the first (1870s and 1880s to 1830s and 1840s) and second (1830s and 1840s to 1880s and 90s) long wave cycles, with The level of scientific and technological progress is consistent with the process of industrialization. Only preliminary practices of scientific management and early scientific management ideas have emerged. Enterprise management is still in the experience management stage. (2) In the third long wave cycle of technological progress (from the 1880s and 1890s to the 1930s and 1940s), that is, starting from the second half of the 19th century, due to the classical mechanical system with Newtonian mechanics as the theme and the Classical electromagnetic theories with Maxwell's electromagnetic theory as the core have been established. These natural science theoretical systems provide scientific prerequisites for the technological revolution, especially the widespread application of electric power technology, which triggered the power revolution and promoted the development of socialized mass production. The large-scale social production resulting from the technological revolution will inevitably put forward requirements for standardized management. The original experience management obviously cannot meet the needs of socialized production and the development of large companies, so scientific management theory emerged as the times require. The impact of scientific and technological progress on management innovation is not only reflected in this aspect, but also in the huge social and knowledge effects produced by the successful progress of natural science and technology, making scientific methods play an exemplary role in the research of management issues and the generation of management theories. Taylor tried to seek excellent management methods through scientific experimental methods and raised management to a scientific level, thus proposing scientific management theory; while Fayol's organizational management theory and Weber's administrative organization theory were based on the universal principle of organizational management. The pursuit of raising management to a rational level; and Mayo's behavioral science theory also studies human management behavior experimentally.
The American Standards Institute promulgated U.S. wartime quality management standards (quality control instructions, control chart method for data analysis, and control charts for quality control in manufacturing processes). After the war, these standards were widely adopted by American industrial enterprises, and quality management entered the stage of statistical quality management.
As a special social and historical phenomenon, war can promote the development of management science and is inevitable. War can completely change all aspects of a country's political, economic, and social environment. It is a huge temporary mutation factor. This temporary, huge mutation of the entire environment will inevitably put forward new requirements for management. In other words, war will create a huge need for management innovation. From the perspective of the dialectical relationship between theory and practice, the approach to the development of a science can be divided into two interrelated categories, one is "pull by practical demand" and the other is "pushed by theoretical supply". The so-called "theoretical supply-driven type" means that researchers explore in their own theoretical kingdom according to the inherent theoretical logic of this science, thereby discovering and proposing some new theories, and then testing them through practice to solve practical problems, and finally Gradually promote the development of this discipline. This is an innovative way of accumulating knowledge that first develops theory and then studies its practical application, thus promoting the development of the discipline. The development of modern science and the huge scientific knowledge base have made this type of approach more and more common; while the "practical demand-pull type" refers to problems that have arisen in reality that need to be solved urgently, and the existing theories and methods of this discipline The inability to do anything prompts people to conduct research and seek new theories and methods to solve practical problems. The science develops as new theories and methods are developed that solve real-world problems. This is a knowledge accumulation method that practices advanced theories, meets practical needs first, and then innovates theories and methods. This type of approach is generally more suitable for the development of applied disciplines. Obviously, the development of management science is more suitable for this "practical demand-pull type", and once a war breaks out, it will often have a strong "pull force" on the development of management science. In a sense, a war is a movement that values ??management and improves and develops management at all costs.