Management History

Managers can look at past managerial methods in order to make decisions that will best suit themselves and help their organisations, as well as giving their organisation a competitive advantage (Boddy D. , 2005). In this essay I will be arguing against the proposition that knowledge of management history is irrelevant to modern practice. To show that management history is important for modern managers, I am going to discuss and focus on a number of historical management techniques and theories and how they can be useful. I will talk about how these management techniques and theories are relevant with modern management. The first approach I will look at is the classical approach. Too elaborate on this theory I will split it in to two areas; the scientific management theory and the administrative principals. Firstly I will discuss the scientific approach; where I will talk about Frederick Winslow Taylor and his theory on the importance of workers being trained and the importance of the selection process (Bartol & Martin, 1994). The next branch is the administrative approach involving theorist Henri Fayol and how his theories have been well respected and become a big part of modern management today. To finish off my argument I will be talking about the behavioural side of management by relating to Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Through looking into these methods I hope to give the reader a good understanding as to why I believe historical management has had a big impact on modern management today and will continue to do so in the future.
The first discussion will be based around the classical approach, an approach to management that is seen as a way of managers making decisions based around economic concern. There are three main areas within the classical approach, these being scientific management, administrative principles and bureaucratic organisation. However, throughout my argument I will be focusing only on two of these approaches, thus being the

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