Schools of management thought: a text analysis of management books published in the first half of the twentieth century

Abstract

ABSTRACT The first half of the twentieth century saw the emergence of a variety of management ideas and various schools of thought that occurred during this time. While there are commonalities, these schools are far from absolute. They often intertwine and use different terminology making distinctions difficult. To better understand how management thought developed, 27 management books from well-known authors published between 1903 and 1949 were analyzed using text analysis and quantitative techniques. A plot showing the semantic similarity among the books was produced. Inspection of the plot revealed seven groups of books: Scientific Management I, Scientific Management II, Psychology, Labor Relations and Personnel, Human Relations, Social Organization, and Administration. The plot also showed a progression over time with the earliest books taking a mechanistic task and worker-level perspective. Later authors expanded this to consider group-dynamics, psychology, sociology, structural aspects of organization, and the functions of management and general management as a whole. Each book and author is described providing an understanding of its location in the plot and the relationship with others. This is the first study to apply quantitative text analysis techniques to early management writings and to simultaneously examine so many books and authors.