The Major Developments of Social Issues in Management Thinking, From the Early 1900s Through to Today

Abstract

The reality today is that the competitive world of organisations, especially business organisations, is so complex and so fast changing that managers are continually looking for methods and approaches to implement that would enable their organisations to remain competitive. In this task they are assisted by various writers and scholars who have contributed ideas and theories about this most complex of topics that is the ‘Management of Organisations.’ Keeping in mind a basic proposition that to understand the present one must know something about the past, this essay, which discusses the Major Developments of Social Issues in Management Thinking, from the early 1900s through to today, reviews the history of management thought concentrating on the twentieth century to the present, discussing the organised systematic thinking about management from the Industrial Revolution in England and then in the United states, the development of the Scientific Management Approach, Classical Management Theory, and Neoclassical Theory, the more contemporary approaches, that is, the Behavioural, Decision-Making, and Integrative Approaches, and concludes with a discussion of the status of management thought as the twenty-first century unfolds. As this essay is read, two questions most always be kept in mind to enhance the reader’s understanding. The first question is what preceded the development of a particular way of thinking about management? The second question is what was the world like, in particular the world of work, at the time the Theory or Approach emerged.