The History of Management Thought

This book and it's consistent updates is a useful history of management. In my view, management thought has been destroyed since the unnecessary split between management and 'leadership'. There's a lot of money in 'leadership' but it is largely a sham. I've recently been spelling out, in a web-based discussion thread, my frustration and concern about the concept of leadership and how it is used and marketed. Management needs to be redeemed from the unhelpful dichcotomy. 1. The concept of leadership is based on a false foundation. It can be traced back to researchers who constructed a concept from what they thought leaders and leadership were - after a statistical analysis of questionnaire responses - a self perpetuating myth. It beggars belief that we would accept this as a useful construct in this day and age. How can leadership be a defensible account of effective organisational practice? 2. Connecting "facilitatory", "participatory", "transformational", etc. to the word "leadership" is emotive but unhelpful because there is no agreement on what leadership (or a leader) is. 3. Amalgamating weak (in terms of empirical work) theories of leadership does not produce a good theory. It may produce big books - but how constructive and instructive are they? 4. The leadership theory as it has primarily developed to date has predominately come from the sentential view - that all cognitive ability is language-based. (Descriptive accounts, self reporting or observations of others, of a "great leader" - whatever that is.) It has overlooked the tacit components of knowledge and learning. 5. A theory of "learning" and "knowledge" appears to be assumed in all theories of leadership. Which further weakens the already weak theory. 6. Change tack. Seek to understand what learning is, what knowledge is and what organisational learning is (as distinct from The Learning Organisation - Senge). There is much more fruit to bear in this realm of thought to construct effective organisational practice. 7. Quite enough time has been wasted on leadership. It's about the way everyone influences each other in situation, content and environment. Just as managers and employees do. A child does it when it is hungry or wants something. We need to "get real" and stop flogging a dead concept.

This book is a very strong foundation and the starting point for all management students, managers, and leaders, who are willing to learn about management. Daniel A. Wren, who is one of the most famous management history gurus of our time, provides the basics necessary to understand the evolution of management thought, before jumping into contemporary works on different areas of management. This book is the latest edition of "The Evolution of Management Thought". Don't be misguided with the slight change in the name from "Evolution" to "History". Previous prints with title "The Evolution of Management Thought" is out-of-print.

Management of workers to accomplish organizational tasks predates even the bible. Virtually every field has a organizational structure and management philosophy - even if they don't explicitly state it and some may not even know it! Prior to the modern age, most people simply managed in whatever ad hoc way they thought was best - no one really studied how effective different methods of management were. But as organizations grew in both size and complexity, effective management became synonymous with more profits from higher productivity and less waste. Dr. Wren traces the evolution of management history and thought - exploring the early ideas of what people believed was effective and how these philosophies changed as more ideas came into the field and as technology changed the way we work. This book is for anyone serious about understanding management philosophy - where it's been, where it is, and where it's going.

This book is highly reader friendly. it presents the history of management theory, in an easy to understand chroniclogical format. Daniel Wren introduces terminology, theories and paradigms in a manner that is clear, and concise. This books is a keeper for any business, management or administration majors, in any discipline.

I have enjoyed this book for several years. I was fortunate to have taken a Business History class with Dr. Wren. The book is a well written, easy to understand and follows a logic pattern. I also use it as a reference for other business class. This book is a keeper.