The first systematized uses of the term “management” in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

Abstract

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to seek to reveal the familial roots of modern management thought, largely overlooked by a vast majority of management historians.Design/methodology/approachUsing a hermeneutic approach, the early uses of the word “management” are analyzed, as well as the different literature where it is the most frequently employed.Findings“Management” does not mean primarily “business management.” Rather, the first meanings of this word refer to the family realm. As such, the development of early management thought is not a matter of technical or scientific innovation, nor is it a matter of institutional size or profit. For a long time, management practices have concerned things more than people. In the twentieth century, the principle of control comes to supersede the principles of care and self‐government.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper's findings call for another history of management thought, as against the too narrow histories of modern business management and the too inclusive histories of management as an ancestral and universal practice.Practical implicationsThis research sheds light on two forgotten roots of management thought: the principles of care and of self‐government, which management practitioners could bring up‐to‐date. By presenting the family as the first locus of true “management” thought, it is an invitation to draw from domestic ways of governing.Originality/valueThe historical material here analyzed remains largely unknown to management historians. The method, focusing on text analysis rather than on the study of practices, remains rare in the field of management history.