The origin of business management is seen by some people as a conceptualization of the latest modernity. However, others detect a similar thought in the management of the ancient Egyptian pyramid builders and Sumerian merchants.
With the changes in the workplace brought about by the industrial revolutions of the 18th and 19th centuries, military theory and practice contributed to recently popular approaches to managing factories. While a person can start a business, it lasts longer when it is in the care of many, and when many want to keep it.
Given the scale of most business operations and the lack of records prior to the Industrial Revolution , in those days it made sense for most business owners to carry out management functions themselves.
However, with the growing size and complexity of organizations, gradually the division between owners and operational managers, who are independent specialists in planning and control, became more common.
XIX century
Reputable economists, such as John Stuart Mill and Adam Smith, provided a theoretical background for resource allocation, production, and pricing issues.
Salaried managers as an identifiable group first came to the fore in the late 1800s.
The Scientific Management of Frederick Taylor
The first modern school of thought on management was based on the scientific management principles of Frederick Taylor , which emerged in the late 1800s.
The principles behind Taylor's scientific management focused on the system rather than the employee, placing the role of managers above the role of non-managerial personnel.
Management was very "top-down", with tight control over people and processes across all industries .
Twentieth century
Around 1920 the first comprehensive management theories appeared. Harvard Business School offered the first Master of Business Administration degree in 1921.
1932 - Hawthorne Studies
A new way of thinking emerged after Elton Mayo began to question the principles behind scientific management.
Through Hawthorne's experiments, Mayo concluded that human factors were often more critical in motivating employees to higher levels of productivity. Environmental physical characteristics were less important.
1946 - Organizational development
Kurt Lewin is known in the field of organization development and the study of group dynamics.
His research found that learning within organizations is facilitated when there is a conflict between concrete experience and analysis.
1954 - Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs
Abraham Maslow laid out his hierarchy of needs in a book called Motivation and Personality , greatly influencing how managers perceived employee motivation.
Maslow grouped the categories of human needs into a pyramid. Employees must meet lower-level needs before they are motivated to meet higher-level needs.
The base of the pyramid consists of physiological needs, followed by security needs, love and belonging needs, esteem needs, and self-fulfillment needs.
1954 - Leadership and management
Peter Drucker in his book The Practice of Management considers that management consists of five fundamental functions. These are:
- Planning and determination of objectives.
- Group organization.
- Motivation and communication.
- Performance evaluation.
- Development of people.
1959 - Hygiene and motivational factors
Frederick Herzberg developed a list of hygiene factors based on Maslow's hierarchy of needs.
Hygiene factors must be present at work before managers can use motivational factors to stimulate worker performance.
1960 - Theory X and Theory Y
The principles of theory X and theory Y of Douglas McGregor consist of principles that impact the formulation and application of policies and practices in the treatment of employees.
1964 - Management Grid
Robert Blake and Jane Mouton developed a management model that conceptualizes management styles and relationships.
Their model uses two axes: "concern for people" is plotted using the vertical axis and "concern for the task" is along the horizontal axis, to describe different management styles and ways of relating to employees.
1970s - Strategic Planning
The focus was shifted from the measurement function to tools such as strategic planning. The shared growth matrix and SWOT were used to formalize strategic planning processes.
1980s - Competitive Advantage
As the business environment became increasingly competitive and connected, competitive advantage became a priority for organizations.
Tools such as total quality management and Six Sigma were used to improve productivity.
1990s - Process optimization
Process reengineering became popular. In the middle of the decade, 60% of the companies that made up the Fortune 500 list said they had plans or had already started them.
A more holistic approach took the stage, focused on the entire organization and strategy implementation. Tools such as strategy maps and management dashboards emerged.
1990 - Learning organization
Peter Senge popularized the learning organization with the book The Fifth Discipline: Art and Practice of the Learning Organization .
Five disciplines are present in learning organizations. They are as follows:
- Personal domain.
- Systemic thinking.
- Shared vision.
- Mental models.
- Team learning.
1995 - Ethics in management
The idea of ethics in management changed the vision of employees. They went from being an expense to being business assets.
XXI century
Observers are finding it increasingly difficult to subdivide management into functional categories. More and more processes involve several simultaneous categories.
2000s - Big data
Mainly driven by the consulting industry under the banner of Big data , organizations began to focus on using technology for their growth and value creation.
2009 - Motivation Theory ( Drive )
This theory departs from the idea that a system of rewards and punishments based on extrinsic factors can motivate people.
Those responsible for human initiative are intrinsic factors, such as autonomy, dominance, and purpose.
2013 - Internet, online work, new technologies
Recently, the possibility of working from home has been increasingly accepted, which has important advantages for people.
Another important point is what the online platforms have meant; It is becoming more and more common to work as a freelancer and that companies are interested in hiring these instead of permanent workers.
On the other hand, little by little the effects that robotics and artificial intelligence have on the labor market will be noticed. Millions of jobs will be lost, causing people of working age to “retrain” into new professions.
Collaboration with robots and artificial intelligence will be increasingly common to manage organizations.
see also finance and business knowledge
