Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to trace the European and British activities of Wallace Clark and his consulting firm with public sector agencies and private firms implement Henry L. Gantt’s ...chart concept.
Design/methodology/approach
Archival records and secondary sources in English and French.
Findings
Developed to meet the shipbuilding and use needs for the Great War (World War I), the Gantt chart was disseminated through the work of Wallace Clark during the 1930s in numerous public sector and private organizations in 12 nations. The Gantt concept was applied in a variety of industries and firms using batch, continuous processing and/or sub-assembly lines in mass production. Traditional scientific management techniques were expanded for general management, such as financial requirement through budgetary control. Clark and his consulting firm were responsible for implementing a managerial tool, the Gantt chart, in an international setting.
Research limitations/implications
Some firms with which Clark consulted could not be identified because the original records of the Wallace Clark Company were disposed of by New York University archival authorities. Industries were identified from the writings of Pearl Clark and Wallace Clark, and some private or public organizations were discerned from archival work and the research of French and British scholars.
Originality/value
This is the first study of the diffusion of a managerial tool, developed in America by Henry L. Gantt, into Europe and Britain through the contributions of Wallace Clark.
This article traces the emergence of the General Motors Corporation as a multinational enterprise under the leadership of James D. Mooney from 1922 to the outbreak of World War II. Mooney's ...unpublished paper “The Science of Industrial Organization” (1929) portrays GM's multidivisional organization's use of the line-staff concept in organizing overseas assembly plants. Here I compare General Motors with Ford Motor Company, which had first-mover advantages overseas, and examine how each company organized and managed their international operations. “Linking pins,” a social-science concept, illustrates how GM's organizational hierarchy achieved vertical coordination of effort. Economic depression and the prelude to World War II followed the expansionary 1920s, requiring GM and Ford to adjust to a changing environment. The article also covers Mooney's naïve attempts to use business for diplomacy in the years leading up to the war.
Purpose
– This paper aims to highlight myriad accomplishments of C. Bertrand Thompson, who is perhaps most well known as a scientific-management bibliographer and a Taylor disciple, in the belief ...that his contributions as a pioneer management theorist and consultant in Europe deserve to be more widely known and more deeply appreciated.
Design/methodology/approach
– Archival, primary and secondary sources were used in the research.
Findings
– Thompson was among the first to bring management consulting to Europe. He understood the importance of adapting scientific-management principles to meet the diverse needs of each client for whom he consulted. Thompson’s strong belief and value system remained constant throughout his life.
Practical implications
– Understanding the needs of customers or clients and adapting systems to meet those needs is essential in achieving success as a consultant.
Originality/value
– By drawing on rarely accessed published and unpublished materials, this paper discusses Thompson’s many contributions to management thought and practice, most of which previously have not been highlighted in the referent literature.
The centennial of The Principles of Scientific Management (PSM) provides an opportunity to reflect on Frederick W. Taylor’s best known work. Taylor remains at the top of the list of those who have ...contributed to the history of management thought and PSM is considered the most influential management book of the 20th century. Those first attracted to the writings of Taylor were engineers who had seen his experiments and publications appear in the transactions of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, who had read his first book, Shop Management. The events leading to the appearance of PSM are much lesser known and will be examined to aid in explaining how Taylor's preferred term for his work, task management, became scientific management. Finally, how scientific management became an international force, stimulating thought and development in numerous countries beyond the U.S will be discussed.
We attempt to extend previous research concerning the perceptions of management educators on the relative balance between theory and applications in their classroom instruction. Specifically, this ...study represents an update to results of previous survey data collected in the decades of the 1970s and the 1980s published by Wren, Atherton, and Michaelsen (1980) and Wren, Buckley, and Michaelsen (1994). Based on a sample of 525 members of the Academy of Management, we conclude that there is an increasing emphasis toward teaching management theory compared to earlier data collection. In the 1970s, the theory-application balance was tipped in favor of theory. However, in the 1980s there was a significant swing away from theory toward application. Now, we appear to be back to the trends of the 1970s, with an emphasis of theory over practical application. We discuss the implications of these findings in light of recent concerns over the role of theory in management classrooms.
A long tradition in business schools is teaching the history of business or business disciplines. However, surveys over the past quarter century suggest that such teaching is becoming less common—to ...the detriment of our students, particularly doctoral students. We trace that tradition and present the results of two major surveys that indicate a current decline in teaching the history of business disciplines. We offer reasons and examples to support our position that we need to study history not only to gain a historical perspective but also the ability to think critically about current problems.
Among modern scholars and students there is an increasing distance between the fundamental thoughts of early management writers and contemporary, often secondary, accounts of how these pioneers ...developed their ideas. This shortcoming can be remedied by seeking original sources from when a pioneer's ideas were being formulated and from the context within which this occurred. We examine examples of how others have furthered our understanding of management history by the discovery and translation of pioneering writings and present a rare, out-of-print translation and a previously untranslated and unpublished presentation from the French pioneer, Henri Fayol. These presentations to his colleagues in the mineral industry reveal Fayol's early reflections as they would later evolve into his classical book, Administration Industrielle et Générale.
There are varying opinions about whether or not the field of business ethics has a history or is a development of more modern times. It is suggested that a book by a Dominican Friar, Johannes Nider, ...De Contractibus Mercatorum, written ca. 1430 and published ca. 1468 provides a basis for a history of over 500 years. Business ethics grew out of attempts to reconcile Biblical precepts, canon law, civil law, the teachings of the Church Fathers, and the writings of early philosophers with the realities of expanding economic activity. Nider's background is discussed as well as his book as an example of incunabula. Nider was one of the Scholastics who provided a link between Aristotle and later Reformation thinkers. In Nider we find caveat venditor as his moral guide to merchants as well as other surprisingly modern ideas such as justice in exchange; restitution for defective goods; the market as the final arbiter of value; and the importance of creating utility in products.
Lenin advocated "Taylorization" (i.e. scientific management), to rebuild post-revolutionary Russia's economy. The evidence, however, indicates that Lenin's advocacy caused conflict within the ...communist party, and scientific management was rarely implemented successfully. Noting a rhetoric-reality gap, the paper explains the difference between Lenin's advocacy and actual practice. Lenin wished to convey the message that his regime was progressive, using the latest management techniques. Rather than following scientific management precepts, pressure was placed on Soviet workers to increase productivity without improving work methods. The paper's conclusion is that Lenin's advocacy of scientific management was a leader's rhetoric, a political expediency, and it would be misleading to connect scientific management with the practice of management in post-revolutionary Russia.
Successful corporate turnarounds occur, thus avoiding liquidation, but historical examples are few. In late nineteenth century France Henri Fayol became managing director (CEO) of a vertically ...integrated iron and steel firm and made various decisions that retrieved the firm from the brink of liquidation. In examining his career, the competitive nature of the industry, and his decisions, it is suggested that he employed a deliberate and comprehensive corporate strategy to guide the firm toward its objectives. While he developed his theory of management from these experiences and claimed that its application was the primary cause of the turnaround, this paper suggests that there were several other factors at work.
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