Actuality. Management as a phenomenon of culture and an exclusively unique object of scientific knowledge occupies a special place in the life of society. As historical development of mankind is complicated as organizational structures, as well as the culture of management and a set of theories that describe them. However, modern science does not take into account that radical changes in organizational reality occur not continuously, but during the bifurcation of civilization. A specific culture that arose precisely in such conditions is mechanistic management, the study of which is devoted to this article. Purpose and methods. The purpose of the article is a theoretical and historical analysis of the culture of mechanistic management, the identification of the basic determinants of the genesis of this management culture and the formation of the main directions of its development in conditions of industrialism. The methodological basis of the research is the dialectical principle of cognition, systemic, civilization, historical approaches to the study of social phenomena and processes, and the fundamental provisions of the theory of management. Results. The objective preconditions of the formation of a culture of mechanistic management are determined: European science and mechanism arising from the Newtonian picture of the world – the presentation of organizational reality as a machine, as well as atomism, rationalism and social Darwinism as a "natural law" about inter-species struggle; Protestant ethics as a justification of profit; political economy, which introduced the economy in the form of a machine operating under the laws of Newtonian mechanics; great scientific and technical discoveries, demanding new forms of organization of production. The essence of the article is given, comparative characteristics are given and prospects of further application of the main directions of culture of mechanistic management: scientific organization of labor and management are outlined; administrative management; the bureaucracy. Conclusions and discussion. Scientific novelty of the obtained results consists in identifying the key determinants of the genesis of the culture of mechanistic management and generalization of the peculiarities of the independent trends of this culture, and practical significance is seen in expanding the perceptions of the theory and history of world culture, including in them previously practically not explored in the cultural-historical context ideas, thoughts, views and concepts of mechanistic management.