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Management: Historical Perspectives

Mary Parker Follett (1868–1933), although trained
in philosophy and political science, shifted her interests to
vocational guidance, adult education, and social psychol-
ogy. These led to her lifetime pursuit of developing a new
managerial philosophy that would incorporate an under-
standing of the motivating desires of the individual and
the group. She emphasized that workers on the job were
motivated by the same forces that influenced their duties
and pleasures away from the job and that the manager’s
role was to coordinate and facilitate group efforts, not to
force and drive workers. Because of her emphasis on the
group concept, the words “togetherness” and “group
thinking” entered the managerial vocabulary.
Elton Mayo (1880–1949), best known for his
Hawthorne experiments, introduced rest pauses in indus-
trial plants and in so doing reduced employee turnover
from 250 percent to 5 percent in some cases. He was con-
cerned about human performance and working condi-
tions. The work pauses, better known as breaks, reduced
employee pessimism and improved morale and productiv-
ity.

MANAGEMENT PROCESS
The father of the management process school of thought
Lillian Evelyn Gilbreth (1878–1972) and Frank Gilbreth was the Frenchman Henri Fayol (1841–1925), a mining
(1868–1924). The Gilbreths refind the fields of time and
engineer. He spent his entire working career with the same
motion study. © UNDERWOOD & UNDERWOOD/CORBIS
company, involved with coal mining and iron production.
From his experiences as the managing director of the com-
pany, Fayol developed his general principles of adminis-
tration. He thought that the study, analysis, and teaching
but also in the improvement of the totality of people and of management should all be approached from the per-
the environment, which they believed could be done spective of its functions, which he defined as forecasting
through training, better work methods, improved envi- and planning, organizing, commanding, controlling, and
ronments and tools, and a healthy psychological outlook. coordinating. He thought that planning was the most
Lillian Gilbreth had a background in psychology and important and most difficult of these. Much of contem-
management. Frank Gilbreth’s fame did not come until porary management thought revolves around the func-
after his death in 1924. tions of management.
James D. Mooney (1884–1957), whose writings and
BEHAVIORAL MANAGEMENT research lent credence to the management process school
of thinking, is credited with the notion that all great man-
The behavioral school of management grew out of the
efforts of some to recognize the importance of the human agers use the same principles of management. He empha-
endeavor in an organization. Followers of this school felt sized a tight engineering approach to the manager’s job of
that if managers wanted to get things done, it must be getting work done through others. He gave little thought
through people—the study of workers and their interper- to the human element, but instead was exclusively
process-oriented. His approach to organizational analysis
sonal relationships.
became classic.
Henry L. Gantt (1861–1919) was one of the earliest
of the behavioral theorists. Although he could be classified
in multiple categories, his passionate concern for the CONCLUSION
worker as an individual and his pleas for a humanitarian There are diverse opinions about the people who were the
approach to management exemplify the behavioral earliest developers of management thought. Although
approach. His early writing called for teaching and there are many other theorists who can be credited with
instructing workers, rather than driving them. expanding or enhancing their teachings, the basics of each

474 ENCYCLOPEDIA OF BUSINESS AND FINANCE, SECOND EDITION