Leadership concepts in manufacturing environments: A brief historical review and conclusion with recommendations for education and training of I-O psychologists

Abstract

Viewing production-line workers from a historical standpoint, the attention on manufacturing in the 19th and into the 20th centuries was on production (Fifelski, 2014) and production-oriented leadership style, in contrast to employee-oriented leadership style (Likert, 1961; see also Kosicek, Soni, Sandbothe, & Slack, 2012).Around the turn of the 20th century, changes took place, and it appears as if two different approaches were taken in manufacturing environments: research–practitioner-based leadership approaches and management-based leadership approaches; the latter approach is less a leadership style and more a social management philosophy em+phasizing business operation (Vitolla, Rubino, & Garzoni, 2017). This review should bring awareness that industrial and organizational (I-O) psychologists once took on the lead to major successes that arose from work in manufacturing companies; however, today there is hardly any contribution by I-O psychologists to the manufacturing sector.