The history of management theory

1. On the history of management Several questions about ancient management in China Strictly speaking, modern management is only 100 years old.

For China, modern management emerged with the modern mass production after the Revolution of 1911. After 100 years of development, modern management has developed into many disciplines including enterprise management, social management, technical management, public management, strategic management and so on.

But if we look at it from another angle, management is always accompanied by the whole human history. People are social animals, and they need to organize and coordinate their actions when they are engaged in collective production and social activities, so management is produced in such organization and coordination.

China is an ancient civilization with a long history of 5,000 years. In the long history of the Chinese nation's long-term survival, reproduction and development, it has created splendid traditional national culture. Shang Shu Yao Dian records the division of functions and deeds of governing the country of Yao, Shun and Yu.

From BC 12 to BC 1 1 century, the Book of Rites first designed China's bureaucracy as 360 posts, and specified the corresponding levels and posts, with distinct levels and responsibilities, which reflected that China had developed quite complete national management thoughts around the 4th century BC. Sun Tzu's Art of War Spring and Autumn and Warring States is recognized as an outstanding work that systematically discusses management strategy and tactics.

China's long-standing ancient traditional culture has nurtured profound management thoughts, produced colorful and unique management methods, and integrated into the historical development process of the whole Chinese nation, even having a far-reaching impact on Japan, Korea and Southeast Asian countries. However, in the face of such a glorious history, modern China people have to face such an embarrassment: there has never been a real management scientist or a widely recognized management theory in China's 5,000-year history and even today's China society.

So far, the management circles in China are still in the dilemma of what is the West. What caused today's situation? To solve this problem, I think there are several points that must be made clear first.

1. What was the management in ancient China? It seems difficult to make it clear in a short space. However, we can roughly sum up the following points: 1. The content of ancient management in China was mainly national management.

Throughout the management practice in ancient China, management and administration are basically integrated. As ancient China was a typical agricultural economy, administration was the most important way of social management. Therefore, any project and any management activities are carried out in the name of the country or the government, and management practice can only be shown in the process of combining with administrative management.

In fact, all the management practices we know in ancient China are not administrative management practices. 2. China ancient management attached great importance to human factors in the process of management activities.

People in the management process include managers and managed people. Many managers are managed by others at the same time. China's ancient management thought has many insights in these two aspects, and there are many examples to test.

The ancients in China emphasized the cultivation of managers, and Sun Tzu's Art of War believed that the qualities to be possessed included intelligence, faithfulness, benevolence, courage and strictness. Scholars in the Warring States period are the talent reserve group of managers, and later scholars are the whole school and the imperial examination system. All learning and training are to prepare for the future empire to train qualified managers and managed people.

In addition, in the selection of materials, many sages have a great length of wonderful exposition. Mozi put forward that "observe what he can and be cautious as an official."

Xunzi warned the rulers that "selfless people are career paths", and they must not be crony, but advocate meritocracy. Yan Zi further pointed out that people's talents are also different, so people should specialize in one thing instead of asking themselves to be omnipotent.

The advantages of employing people, not his shortcomings; What a man is good at, don't use what he is not good at. This is the gist of appointing talents.

Wang Anshi made a systematic theoretical exposition of the above ideas in the Northern Song Dynasty. His thought of employing people can be summarized as "teaching, nurturing, taking and releasing".

Among them, the teaching method is to adhere to the consistency of learning and application and cultivate talents; The way of self-cultivation is the policy that should be adopted to maintain the salary of officials-"sparing their money", "meeting with courtesy" and "punishing them by law"; The way to take it is the way to choose officials; The way is to appoint talents according to their expertise. Such a complete exposition is of great reference significance even today.

3. Managers in ancient China often had excellent management strategies in the management process. By comparing with the western feudal society, we can easily see that the feudal society in China is surprisingly stable and unified.

This also illustrates the superb management level of ancient managers in China from one side. In China's feudal society of more than two thousand years, centralized state management system, fiscal and taxation management, official selection management, population and land management, market and industry and commerce management, water transportation and postal management, documents and archives management, etc. There have been new developments in all dynasties, and many outstanding management talents have emerged, showing outstanding management skills in military, political, financial, cultural, educational and diplomatic fields and accumulating valuable management experience.

The famous "Shang Yang Reform" in the Warring States period is an example of improving the level of state management through reform. The rule of Wenjing brought about the political stability and economic prosperity of the country. The construction of the Great Wall in Wan Li fully embodies the superb level of survey, planning and design, construction and project management at that time, and embodies the high management wisdom of the project commander. Dujiangyan and other large-scale water conservancy projects have comprehensively planned flood control, irrigation and drainage, and shipping, showing the superb level of ancient engineering construction and organization and management in China; Ding Wei presided over the palace construction project in Song Dynasty, which was an example of systematic management and overall planning. Such management practices are too numerous to mention, all of which reflect the superb management wisdom of ancient Chinese people.

Second, why didn't China have a strict and systematic management thought in ancient times? In the history of China, few people comprehensively summarized the connotation of China management, and few people comprehensively expounded China management.

2. There are three historical stages (1) in the development of management theory: from the initial stage after World War II to 1973. This period is characterized by focusing on establishing a theoretical model of comparative management from the conceptual system and how to transfer the management of advanced countries to developing countries in order to promote their economic development.

(2) Low tide stage: 1973 to the end of 1970s. During this period, due to the impact of the economic crisis triggered by the world oil crisis, the sources of research funds dried up; Moreover, comparative management was inspired by the popular general system theory at that time, and the decline of general system theory also affected the comparative management theory to some extent.

(3) * * * stage: early 1980s? . It is marked by four management works: Z Theory, Japanese Business Management Art, Corporate Culture and Road to Success. In this process, there are some characteristics different from the previous two stages: (1) applying corporate culture theory to study comparative management theory and achieving great results; A new breakthrough has been made in the study of internal management elements and methods of enterprises. A model for analyzing internal management elements is designed in an attempt to provide a new scientific analysis tool for comparative research theories. The focus of research has shifted from conceptual analysis to practice, which has increased the value of research results.

3. The development of management history The development of management history The management practice of human beings appeared almost at the same time as the dawn of human civilization, and the research on the law of management activities can be traced back to China and ancient Greece in BC.

The works of ancient Greek philosophers Socrates, Plato and Aristotle all have some expositions on management laws, while Sun Tzu's The Art of War in the 5th century BC is regarded as the earliest and most systematic work on strategic management, because it explores the general laws of strategy. It is generally believed that1At the end of the 9th century and the beginning of the 20th century, Taylor, an American, began to use stopwatches to study how to improve work efficiency, while Fa Yueer, a Frenchman, kept thinking about the universality and independence of organizational management activities, which marked the birth of management science.

In the past 100 years, management has developed from an unspeakable informal activity to an independent profession. People not only realize the universality of management activities-management exists in almost all human organizations and organized activities, but also make normative analysis and research on management activities and problems from various possible angles and methods. Because management science knowledge is widely used to guide management practice, management efficiency has been greatly improved, the process of scientific management has been continuously promoted, and the knowledge system of management science has been continuously expanded.

No wonder some people say that the past 20th century was a century of management. After a whole century's development, management has developed into a complex discipline with a huge knowledge system and branches, which plays an important role in the process of human civilization and knowledge treasure house.

First, the three lines of management development According to the existing literature, there are three main types of clues for the development of management summarized by researchers. The first category is divided according to the content composition of management, for example, the development path of management is divided into the evolution path of organizational theory research (from classical organizational theory, organizational behavior, organizational sociology, leadership science to corporate culture, etc. ), the evolution path of management method research (from scientific management theory, behavioral science, management science theory, decision theory to production management information management methods, etc.). ), and the evolution path of management theory research (from manufacturer theory, industrial organization, marketing, consumers)

The second category is divided according to the generation mode of management knowledge. For example, the formation and development of management science can be divided into three lines, namely, applied management (management principles and methods summarized from management practice), theoretical management (management theory based on basic human nature assumptions) and experimental management (management based on management cases). The third category is divided according to the influencing factors of management development.

Ryan, a famous management historian, believes that the development of management theory is closely related to the cultural environment, which is both a process and a product of the cultural environment. Based on this, some scholars believe that management science has three development tracks. One is based on scientific clues of scientific culture, starting with Taylor's scientific management, including social system theory, management process theory, system management theory, management science theory and decision management theory. Second, based on the humanistic clues of modern human nature, starting from Mayo's research on "social people", including individual behavior theory, group behavior theory, organizational behavior theory and management ethics theory. Thirdly, cultural clues based on cultural model, starting from Drucker's management practice theory, including organizational culture theory, strategic management theory, change management theory, knowledge management and so on.

Similarly, based on the understanding of the important role of cultural environment in the development of management science, there is another clue to the development of management science, namely, the classical organizational management theory based on the spirit of capitalism, the modern management theory jungle based on environmental regional culture (mainly American culture) and the contemporary management theory based on the infiltration of eastern and western cultures. Second, the specific factors affecting the development of management knowledge 1. Although the factors of scientific and technological progress can be traced back to ancient times, the attempt to improve the efficiency of management activities can be traced back to ancient times, but the process of scientific management really began at the end of 19 and the beginning of the 20th century, which is the result of the wide application of science and technology in enterprise organizations after the industrial revolution.

Starting from the industrial revolution in the18th century, it is generally believed that the technological progress cycle can be divided into five cycles, each cycle or stage is about half a century long, that is, Kondratiev long wave in economics. With the continuous cycle of technological progress, the process of scientific management is also advancing. To sum up, the impact of scientific and technological progress on the scientific management process is mainly reflected in three aspects. First of all, scientific and technological progress promotes social and economic development, which in turn leads to the demand for scientific management; Second, scientific and technological progress directly provides technical, means and methodological support for scientific management; Third, the thinking and methods of scientific research also provide methodological guidance for the study of management theory and management problems.

2. No one will deny the factors of institutional change. The premise of Taylor's scientific management theory is the emergence of modern factory system based on production division. In the eyes of economists, the industrial revolution that began in Britain was not only a technological revolution, but also an institutional innovation. "The essence of the industrial revolution is to replace the medieval rules that used to control production and wealth distribution with competition."

The industrial revolution completely destroyed the relations of production in the western feudal society, established a modern factory system of capitalist socialized mass production, and implemented a highly specialized division of labor in the factory, which greatly improved the production efficiency. In a word, institutional change, especially the change of property right system, has a comprehensive impact on the process of management innovation and scientization, and has a strong incentive and constraint effect on the choice of management innovation subjects, management concepts, management methods and management organizational structure innovation.

3. Cultural factors Cultural traditions are embodied in socially recognized values and beliefs, ethical rules, moral concepts, customs and habits, and ideology. Therefore, the influence of culture on human behavior is subtle, but it is often deeply rooted. Different cultural patterns will produce different behaviors. From the process of scientific management, the theory and practice of scientific management have their cultural background and foundation.

Specifically, we can analyze the influence of culture on management research activities and management practice activities respectively. From the perspective of management research, the scientific process of management begins with.

4. Elaborate the historical background and content system of scientific management theory. 1. Stage of Classical Management Theory (1) Background: Classical management theory is a management thought with industrialized production as the main background and the coordinated development of organizations as the main research object in the market economy.

In the stage of classical management theory, the productive forces developed rapidly, the dominant position of market economy was gradually established, and rich ideological sparks appeared constantly, which in turn further promoted the development of productive forces. The ideological basis of classical management theory is the establishment of capitalist spirit.

The practical basis is the establishment of factory system, and the industrialization process puts forward new requirements for management. With the advent of the scientific era, the establishment of the dominant position of the market economy has become the industrial foundation of the classical theoretical stage.

⑵ Features: The main feature of classical management theory is to enable small enterprises to survive, with the enterprise's goal of obtaining maximum benefits. Take the organization as a whole, and take the maximum benefit as the basic guiding ideology.

⑶ Main representatives and theories: ① Scientific management theory. Taylor is the founder of scientific management theory and is known as the father of scientific management. Taylor's scientific management mainly includes homework management, organizational management and management philosophy.

Homework management consists of a series of scientific methods. Formulate scientific working methods, formulate scientific training methods for workers, and implement the * * * reward system.

I reserve the decision-making power and control power of exceptional matters, which are generally important matters, such as major strategic issues of the company and important personnel changes. ② Classical organization theory.

Classical organization theory is generally considered to include Fa Yueer's general management theory and Weber's bureaucracy theory. According to Fa Yueer's general management theory, the six functions of an enterprise are technology, commerce, finance, safety, accounting and management.

The five functions of management are planning, organizing, guiding, coordinating and controlling. At the same time, the management principles of Fa Yueer 14 are put forward: division of responsibilities, consistency of powers and responsibilities, subordination of individual interests to collective interests, remuneration of personnel, centralization, hierarchy, discipline, unified command, unified leadership, order, fairness, stability of personnel, initiative of personnel and unity of personnel.

Weber put forward the theory of bureaucracy. Modern bureaucracy is also called rational bureaucracy or Weber bureaucracy. Its connotation can be summarized as an organizational system and management model in which power is divided and layered according to functions and positions, and rules are the main body of management. As a management mode, bureaucracy provides an effective management mode for the organization and management of modern society. Bureaucratic organizational structure, as an organizational structure, is considered to be the most ideal organizational form suitable for industrial production and widely adopted by human beings. Second, the theoretical stage of behavioral science (1) background: the stage of classical management theory promoted the development of productive forces at that time, but with the development of society, people found that classical management theory could not solve all the problems encountered in practice.

Especially for the study of human beings, the classical management theory involves little, and gradually shifts from scientific management theory to behavioral science theory. The outbreak of World War I is the background of the theory of behavioral science.

In the 1920s, although Taylor's scientific theory management solved some problems for enterprises, labor disputes broke out one after another, which objectively required the emergence of new theories. ⑵ Features: In the theoretical stage of behavioral science, we pay attention to the study of people, including their psychology and behavior.

Pay attention to high efficiency and achieve organizational goals. (3) Main representatives and theories ① Hawthorne experiment: In the 1920s, although Taylor's scientific theory management solved some problems for enterprises, labor disputes broke out one after another, prompting bourgeois managers to study what determines the efficiency of workers. The famous Hawthorne experiment was carried out under the sponsorship of the National Science Council of the United States.

Hawthorne did two rounds before and after the experiment. The second round was hosted by Mayo, a professor at Harvard University.

The test * * * is divided into: lighting test of relay winding group workshop, relay assembly test, interview test and studio test. Through Hawthorne's experiment, people found the factors that affect the efficiency of employees.

The conclusion of Hawthorne's experiment is that workers are social people, and money is not the only motivation for people's enthusiasm. ② Research on individual and group behavior.

In the theoretical stage of behavioral science, there are studies on individuals and groups respectively. As the smallest unit of society, the study of individual behavior is the basis of research organization.

The research on individual behavior includes Maslow's hierarchy of needs theory, Alderfer's theory of survival and development, Herzberg's two-factor theory, McLelland's theory of achievement needs, Fromm's theory of expectation, McGregor's theory of X and Y, Porter and Lawler's comprehensive incentive model, Shane's theory of complex people and so on. After Hawthorne's experiment, the study of group behavior has also become an important part of behavioral science research, mainly referring to group dynamics.

③ Theory of leadership style. In the west, the theory of leadership style is divided into two parts, one is the study of leaders' quality, and the other is the study of leadership style theory.

Henry and baumol, American behavioral scientists, both put forward the qualities that a successful leader should possess, such as being able to cooperate with others, being loyal to the organization, being flexible, having a strong sense of responsibility, mastering the art of leadership, and having an efficient enterprise leadership ability. The theory of leadership style includes the theory of continuous unity, two-dimensional leadership model and Z theory.

Third, the stage of modern management theory (1) Background: Capitalism has undergone tremendous changes in politics and economy through the Second World War, and management theory has also undergone tremendous changes. The economic background of modern management theory is the economic development after World War II.

The development of atomic energy, computer and space technology is the scientific and technological background for the formation of modern management theory. The huge scale of monopoly enterprises and the cooperation of large, medium and small enterprises require the emergence of new management theories, and the deep-seated reasons for the formation of scientific management theories are the reform of production methods, the adjustment of macro-economy, the improvement of education level and the infiltration of natural sciences.

⑵ Features: Modern management theory embodies the permeability, intersection and diversity of management theory. ⑶ Main representatives and theories The characteristics of modern management theory reflect the complexity of management theory.

Modern management theory is also called the era of management jungle. Management is a complex process, which changes with the changes of time, space and other factors.

Many management schools appeared in this period. The main representative ones are: management process science.

5. The development of system management theory The word "system" has a long history. In ancient Greece, Thales of Miletus once regarded the universe as a natural whole with self-circulation.

Pythagoras believes that man is a whole, isomorphic with the whole universe, and that man is a small universe and a microcosm of the big universe. The atomism founded by Lacypus-democritus-Epicurus divides the universe into several levels and regards the atom as its most basic element, trying to answer the original questions of the world from the perspective of world unity, wholeness and wholeness.

Heraclitus said in his book Nature: "The world is a whole containing everything." Democritus is the author of a book, which has been recorded in history, but has not been handed down. Its title is Cosmic System.

It is speculated that this may be the first western philosophical work that uses the word "system". In modern times, some scientists and philosophers often use the word system to represent a complex whole with a certain structure.

In the macro and micro world, there are systematic forms of existence from elementary particles to the universe, from cells to human society, from animals and plants to social organizations. Systems are everywhere all the time: a machine, a factory, an enterprise, a plant community under certain natural conditions, an organization, a country, etc., can all be regarded as a system.

The traditional system theory can't draw a clear line with the "factor theory", and its theory is also based on the "factor theory", so the system they say is more conceptually based on the * * * theory. The revolutionary change of system thought originated from dialectics initiated by Hegel.

After entering modern times, the system thought was influenced to some extent by the dialectical philosophy of19th century. The holistic thinking mode of organic interaction and mutual connection in dialectical thinking penetrated into scientific theory and scientific engineering practice in the early 20th century, which contributed to the birth and development of system theory.

In the first stage, in 1930s, general system theory, as a philosophical methodology, was first put forward by L. V. Bertalanffy, an Austrian-American theoretical biologist, at a seminar of the University of Chicago, 1937. Bertalanfi criticized the one-sided view on the "mechanism" and "vitality" of the essence of life at that time, and pointed out that the essence of life lies in its organic whole formed by the interaction of many parts.

He took the lead in establishing "the theory of organism system". From 65438 to 0948, organism system theory further developed into a famous "general system theory".

Bertalanfi believes that every discipline or science has a model that can be used to reflect the conceptual structure of some aspects of the real world. No subject can monopolize all knowledge, because each subject only reflects a small part of the real world.

However, there are similarities among disciplines. The task of general system theory is to find out the similarities of various disciplines and summarize a theoretical framework, that is, to establish a universally applicable theoretical system to describe various relationships in the real world.

Further, Bertalanfi pointed out that all disciplines have similarities in three aspects: ① the study of the whole or organism; (2) organisms tend to be "stable", that is, to achieve balance; (3) All systems are open, that is, the organism is influenced by its environment and exerts influence on the environment at the same time. This view of general system theory plays a vital role in the formation of system management theory.

In the second stage, from 1940s to 1950s, the formation and development of information theory and cybernetics was 1948. American mathematicians and communication engineers Shennong and Warren Weaver established information theory. At first, people mainly paid attention to its function in communication tools and automation control engineering, which seemed to have no important value for social science and management science.

However, with the development of computer and its application in management science, information theory gradually shows its application value in social science and management science. In the same year that information theory was published, the famous American mathematician Norbert? Norbert wiener published the book Cybernetics.

As Wiener himself said, "From the moment I became interested in cybernetics, I fully understood that the ideas I discovered about control and communication can also be used in sociology and economics." As it said, since 1950s, almost all books on management have involved information, feedback and cybernetics, so that people think that management has really entered the scientific stage.

The third stage, 60-80 years, is the deepening and practical application of system theory in basic theory. At this stage, the self-organization theory was born, which promoted people to study the concepts and principles of general systems from a dynamic perspective. Using experimental and mathematical methods, the self-organization theory focuses on the generation, evolution, qualitative change, development, self-regulation, self-stability, self-replication and self-evaluation, self-selection and so on.

There are many representatives of self-organization theory, such as the dissipative structure theory of Belgian chemist I Prigozin, the synergetic theory of German physicist H Harken, the hypercycle theory of German biochemist Manfred Eigen, and the catastrophe theory, chaos theory and fractal theory which are more closely combined with experimental science. In the field of technology and engineering, systems engineering has rapidly penetrated into the field of social practice.

In the basic methods of system engineering, there are general system engineering methods such as system engineering methodology, system dynamics, grey system theory and pan-system theory. These theories and technical methods go deep into the field of practice, forming a large number of application fields and branches of system engineering.

6. The main ideas and development course of management science After the Second World War, with the rapid development of modern natural science and technology, the scale of production organization has expanded dramatically, productivity has developed rapidly, and the degree of ideological socialization has been continuously improved, which has aroused people's general concern about management theory. As a result, various management schools came into being.

I. Management College Process

The basic idea is:

(1) Management is a process, that is, the process of letting others achieve the set goals together with themselves.

(2) Five functions of the management process, namely, planning, organization, staffing, command and control.

(3) Management functions are universal, but different management levels have different emphases.

(4) management should be flexible, adjust measures to local conditions and apply flexibly.

Two. School of social cooperation

This school believes that the relationship between people is a social system and a cooperative relationship between people in terms of opinions, strength, wishes and ideas. The role of managers is to adapt to the overall cooperative attitude around the factors of matter (machines and materials), biology (as abstract people who breathe air and need space) and society (group interaction, attitude and information).

Three. Empirical school or case school

This school advocates studying management problems by analyzing experience. Through the analysis, comparison and study of various successful and failed management experiences, some general conclusions or principles can be abstracted, which will help students and managers engaged in practical work understand the management principles and enable them to learn to engage in management work effectively.

Four. Interpersonal behavior school

The basis of this school is that since management is to let others or work with others to do things well, it is necessary to study management issues with the relationship between people as the center. This school uses "existing and new theories, methods and technologies in social science to study various phenomena between people, from personal personality characteristics to cultural relations."

Verb (abbreviation of verb) group behavior school

This school is closely related to the interpersonal behavior school and is often confused. But it mainly focuses on the behavior of people in a certain group, rather than the general interpersonal relationship and individual behavior; It is based on sociology, human culturology and social psychology, not on individual psychology.

Intransitive Verb School of Social Technology and System

According to this school, it is not enough to analyze the social cooperation system only to solve the management problems, but also to analyze and study the influence of the technical system on the social system and individual psychology. They believe that the performance of an organization depends not only on people's behaviors and attitudes and their interactions, but also on the technical environment in which people work.

Seven. decision theory school

The basic view is that decision-making is the main task of managers, so we should focus on decision-making problems. The characteristic of management is decision-making, so we should form management theory around the core of decision-making. Because decision-making needs both economic considerations and quantitative description of mathematical models, most scholars who support this school are economists and mathematicians.

Eight. Communication College (Information) Center

This school advocates taking managers as an information center and forming management theory around this concept. They believe that the role of managers is to receive, store and disseminate information, and each manager's position is like a telephone exchange.

Nine. School of Mathematics ("Management Science")

They believe that management is basically the calculation and deduction of mathematical programs, concepts, symbols and models. Most scholars who agree with this school are mathematicians, mathematical statisticians, physicists and management theorists.

X. contingency theory school

Contingency theory school is further developed on the basis of empiricism. However, it has its own characteristics, that is, it is not limited to studying individual cases and proposing individual solutions, but to investigate and study a large number of the same objects and summarize the obtained experience materials, with the aim of proposing management organization plans and management system plans suitable for specific situations. It believes that in management, we should improvise according to the content conditions of enterprises, and there is no fixed and universally applicable "best" management theory and method.