The Capitalist Philosophers: The Geniuses of Modern Business--Their Lives, Times, and Ideas

Only recently did I become aware of this book (published in 2000) in which Andrea Gabor focuses on Frederick Winslow Taylor, Mary Parker Follett, Chester Barnard, Fritz Roethlisberger and Elton Mayo, Robert McNamara, Abraham Maslow and Douglas McGregor, W. Edwards Deming, Herbert A. Simon, Alfred Du Pont Chandler and Alfred Sloan, and Peter F. Drucker. And frankly, until reading this book, I knew little (if anything) about Follett, Mayo, Simon, and Chandler and thus was especially eager to understand why Gabor included them with the others. Also of special interest to me is how skillfully Gabor uses several themes that lend cohesion to the provision of her narrative. For example, she notes "the seemingly irreconcilable visions of management - the scientific and humanistic - that have battled fort hegemony both in the corporate workplace and in American society itself." Gabor traces the development of both the scientific and humanistic traditions from the beginning of the 20th century and follows the battle of ideologies up to the present, 2000. A related theme involves various responses to this question: "What is the purpose of the business organization in American society?" Is it a "pivotal institution of democracy" with complex responsibilities to a host of constituencies (e.g. employees, customers, and the community) or is there "one primary corporate constituent - the shareholder - and a single purpose - profit making"? Here in Dallas, we have a Farmers Market at which several vendors offer free slices of fresh fruit as samples. Following their example, I now provide a representative selection of brief excerpts from Gabor's book to suggest the "flavor" of her analysis and writing style. "Taylor's greatest contribution was in recognizing that scientific method was the key to the success of industrialization, especially in running the new enterprises that were of a scale and scope heretofore unimaginable - factories so large they used small railroads to transport men around them, factories peopled by thousands of workers operating enormous, power-driven machines." (Page 5) "Although Barnard did not refer specifically to the notion of corporate culture, he recognized that the values of an organization reside in the informal organization. He saw that formal organizations generate `customs, mores, folklore, institutions, social norms, and ideals' - in short culture. They are also a key to communication, which Barnard identified as one of the most important functions of the executive." (Page 79) Abraham Maslow coined the term `Eupsychia' [introduced in his book Eupsychian Management and later reissued as Maslow on Management] to define a `culture that would be generated by 1,000 self-actualizing people on a sheltered island' and help answer the questions that defined his core preoccupation: `how good a society does human nature permit?' In the words of Warren Bennis, Maslow approached his material `like a swashbuckling Candide, that is with

I've assigned this book as reading for my Million Dollar Consulting College Grad School. It's a superb history of a group of people who have defined business strategy, orgnaizational development, culture change, and other business dynamics. It is historical, including people like Elton Mayo; diverse, with people like Mary Parker Follet; and contemporary, with people like the recently deceased Peter Drucker. Each of the subjects rates a brief biography which includes his or her own background, contributions, and legacy. The book is really a required piece for any serious business consultant.

In this book, business journalist Andrea Gabor traces the contributions of several key management thinkers and practitioners, and how their efforts shaped both the modern American corporation and popular notions of it. By chronicling well known (such as F.W. Taylor and Robert McNamara) and less known (such as Mary Parker Follett and Fritz Roethlisberger) figures, Gabor succeeds in illustrating how their ideas built on one another and in many cases anticipated by decades the challenges managers would -- and continue -- to face. The result of Gabor's efforts is not solely a survey of prominent people, but rather a nuanced discussion of the development of what proved to be some of the 20th century's most influential thoughts on management, irrespective of the originator's fame. This approach has several benefits. First, it accurately maps the development of fundamental theories of the corporation's role in society without bowing to the cults of personality around certain writers. Next, it demonstrates how ideas may be attributable not just to one genius, but to several individuals who may articulate similar thoughts in response to changes in society and work life. For readers looking to understand the development of management theory, this book is an excellent place to start. For all readers, Gabor makes this an entertaining book by describing in detail the personal qualities of these figures, and how their backgrounds and work experiences shaped the perspectives they brought to bear on the early problems of management.

The capitalilst philolospher is a great novel. It goes in depth in to how profound capitalist made their mark, and also their faults. So as a reader you get to see what they did, and what they could have done to better. It gives a great foundation on how capitalism came to be, and how it has developed in the last centuries.

The general idea of the book is that scientific and humanistic management theories interacted and developed over the century. The author makes explicit issues that guided and constrained the thinkers' ideas. The author reviews the contributions of Frederick Taylor, Mary Parker Follett, Elton Mayo, Chester Barnard, Abraham Maslow, Herbert Simon, Robert McNamara, Alfred Chandler, W. Edwards Deming, and Peter Drucker. The book examines the philosophers' contributions, and shows how these thinkers affected business thingking and practice.