LSME004: A Comprehensive Look at Management Theory Evolution

This essay provides a comprehensive overview of the evolution of management theory and practice, tracing its development from the pre-industrial era, characterized by guilds and the influence of the church, through the industrial revolution, marked by specialization and the emergence of scientific management by Frederick Taylor. The essay then explores the post-industrial era, highlighting the shift towards employee empowerment and the contributions of Henry Fayol. It examines key concepts such as division of labor, scientific management principles, and the evolution of the manager's role. The essay also discusses the changing dynamics of the workplace and the need for flexibility in management structures to gain a competitive advantage. The essay concludes by emphasizing the continuous evolution of management practices in response to technological advancements and changing organizational needs.

Name: Evolution of Management Theory & Practice
Code : LSME004

Introduction
Even before knowing what management is, human civilization has started using today's
management techniques. The depth of this observation can be found whether one looks at the
procedure of cooking, in the calculation during hunting, and so on. Let's go through the fantastic
topic, "Management," and see its journey from the beginning. This era is divided into three
categories, which are discussed below :
Discussion
Pre-industrial era
The earliest form of management originated from the guild in the fourteenth century. Guild was a
community that used to keep a check on the goods' production and sales in that particular
geographic area. They ensure that no craftsmen were affected and deprived of the benefits one is
having. The concept of sales and competition hadn't been experienced in that era. Grace and
working for the whole's advancement were the primary concern of the craftsmen and the society
head of that time. The business was mostly regulated through the church's beliefs and the
regulations the church authority prefers to implement. The craftsmen had job security then as the
production of the goods was limited, and there's no tendency to make money out of money. The
guild is somewhat similar to our cooperative organization now.
Slowly after the medieval era, artisans started having their shops to display products that were of
excess. And the seed of competitiveness started from there. Capitalism and the Bourgeois grew,
which means people started thinking to make money out of money. The focus, which was on
land acquisition, earlier transferred into money maximization (Montiel, Park and Antolin-Lopez,
2020).
The significant change came in the Business Social system. Churches, which were used to guide
the business management through its' religious values, started losing their authority as the
merchant princes started influencing the decisions taken by church and state. That resulted in
losing control over the effective competition. The rise of competition was growing higher, and

artisans and dealers who used to have job security earlier started having doubts. This is the time
when Individualism started hitting on too.
Another incident completely changed the attitude towards work, business, and fate in the late
fifteenth century. This was The Protestant Reformation, which originated from Germany and was
later led by Martin Luther and John Calvin. Tax, corruption of churches were all exposed. The
dependency on the church for the business came to zero when Luther said that it should be God,
who is in charge of deciding what is going to happen with whom, who is the person that will be
saved, who is the person that should be punished and looked upon, the control of earthly matters
are a decision that an individual is going to take for his own (Grau-Sologestoa, 2015).
This was the phase that transferred the focus of people from Eternity to Prosperity in this life.
Luther also proclaimed that hard work is the only key that would bring happiness and success.
Establishing hard work and declaring that people can take control of the earthly matters of their
life motivated some businessmen so much that they forgot the basic rule set by Luther - not
taking advantage of the unfortunate. Conflict ethics started replacing cooperative ethics, which
ultimately decreased each other's effort rather than uplifting one. The business environment of
grace and community turned into self-development or can say, the business became network than
family (Panchak, 2021).
Management practices with Industrial revolution
The industrial revolution took place between 1760 - 1900. But the origin and the emergence of
this was started long before that (Lamb, 2012). It was when the word management was
introduced in the English vocabulary by John Florio from Italy. Let's go through how both the
industrial revolution and management grew together during this era:
The renaissance, with its ideals, entered into the British empire during the 1485 - 1603 century.
That was when the British empire was blooming in trade with its' Hudson's Bay Company and
East India Company. These two were spreading worldwide with collaborating products from
their home country and the nations under the reign of Great Britain. This trade situation peak

forced businesses to organize their activities as the profit was unveiling throughout the world like
a box full of treasures (The Industrial Revolution, 2021).
The second hit on the management practice was imposed by the scholar and philosopher Adam
Smith, who introduced the concept of Specialization, coordination, and division of labour.
Specialization cut off production and training costs as all the workers didn't need to focus on all
types of work. And the need for coordination in the workplace emphasized the skill of managing
the worker's activities intensively (Beverland, 2012).
The steam engine innovation was another milestone that bears the flag higher with its' lost cost
transportation and contribution to technology. It allowed doing business in the most distant
markets possible, which arrowed at fining the managing skills too.
As the market revolution took place, the production orientation was no more confined to the
family level; it entered into the factory settings. The amount of output in the factory was
unmatched with family-level production. Along with this, the problem arose of managing
production methods. The management and the worker, none of them had any measurement of the
production quantity. Management didn't explain anything related to work procedure to the
workers, and workers thought that management determined to complete the tasks in this
haphazard way. That creates real chaos in keeping the balance between market demand,
production, and employee satisfaction (Crossick and Cunningham, 2012).
Workers were implementing the same task in different styles every day, causing inefficiency in
mass production. Then some engineers/reformers decided that there needs to be a work
standardization. For that reason, management should be included as a distinct field of study to
increase work efficiency. Thus, with the lessons from the renaissance, Smith's theory and steam
engine's innovations, and the trade expansion - the whole economic scenario forced to emerge
Managers' role.
Apart from Adam Smith's work specialization, no proper management theory was introduced
before the Industrial Revolution. But with increased competition, innovations of technologies,
and the growth of factories with full potential, the focus on management and organization started
growing like a volcano (Abbasi and Jaafari, 2021).

At that time, an American mechanical engineer named Frederick Taylor noticed a lack of
awareness in the production factories. The owners weren't connected to the root production, and
the workers were working only not to be fired. There was no urge and incentives to work harder
than the man next to him. He then introduced a management concept that was labelled as
scientific management. The reason for tagging this as science was the use of techniques. He
included plans from botanists and chemists combined with observation, analysis, synthesis,
rationality, and logic. The scientific management system has four focus points, including finding
the one best scientific way of completing each task that could be measurable, hiring the right
workers and giving incentives for an effective performance while firing for not finishing the job
properly, monitoring work performance, and finally, dividing the work between the Manager and
the workers for breeding organized plans and execution.
Before labelling it as scientific management, he collaborated the following systems to form a
history-making theory that is refined, measurable, and accurate. An accounting system that
records the operations resulting in greater effectiveness. Production system to help managers to
know the updates of the work at the root level. Time and motion studies to analyze the time spent
on completing several parts of the job. It eventually results in identifying the worker's ability.
Piece rate system where a worker is paid by the unit he had produced, not by the time he spent
on completing the task. This system motivates the employees to follow the instructions more
precisely.
The post-industrial era and future of management
Everything workers have to handle in new, post-industrial organisations. Teams need to use self-
management with dynamic structures for conducting work themselves and reliable measurements
of success are openly available. The work environment is no more confined with giving orders
and fulfilling them by list. By Recognising the impact of employees in decision making and
information sourcing, the need of giving authority and responsibility to an individual has
increased. The main focus of this era is on giving freedom of opinion to the employees (Lehr,
2013).
This participation of employees may seem so natural and effortless unless someone knows about
the autocratic model of management. Managers were like the heads who decided what to do and

employees were given the tag of "Hands" who were just doing their work without even knowing
the whole scenario let alone participation in decision making.
In 1980, with the launch of the bandwagon of Japan in the USA, the replacement of managers
with leaders emerged and since then people and modern organization are focusing more on
theory y which describes that people can be responsible and trusted. In the future, the shape of
management will be focusing on the followings:
Separating management from traditional managers. Focus on the knowledge workers and train
the employees to learn the management skills so that they can manage their task without seeking
guidance from the manager on every new task. Assign employees with responsibilities with
complete accountability on their own. This will enable them to increase the risk-taking spirit,
along with being creative and competitive. Redefine managers' role with the ability to organize
the opinion of all the employees and the company's resources to the fullest rather than being
controlling and mechanistic (Lehr, 2013).
A contemporary of Taylor, Henry Fayol , a french engineer later promoted as a manager in a coal
mine emerged to be a chapter of history with his enormous contribution in the field of
management. His thoughts on the managerial implications are not confined only to the
organization rather it's an analysis over the industry as a whole. The management insights that
Fayol provides can be categorized into 4 broad area:The first one is the division of industrial
activities where he advised to focus on six aspects in the industry (technical, commercial,
financial, security, accounting, managerial activities) to have a wholesome understanding to lead
by being on top. He is the first pioneer who established that managers must possess some
qualities on the basis of physical, mental, moral, educational, technical and experience which in
today's world have become a key factor for differentiating the image of an corporation too. The
introduction of qualities for manager was his second big eye catcher point. Fayol characterized
the functions of management into 5 broad spectrum that concludes Planning, Organizing,
Commanding, Co-ordinating and Controlling. These functions were later found to be applicable
to religious, philanthropic and even political policies.And finally, the most highlighting findings
of his observation was the 14 principles that were built on focussing from the mode of
administration to the chain of work hierarchy.Fayol kept a fine line between the management
elements and the principles itself. The broad area covered by the adminstrative management
theory is maintained for along time. The contribution level of this theory didn't only reach the bar
of influence, it dominated the management thoughts (Wren, 2001).

Conclusion
Starting from the Guild community and by showering in the ocean of Renaissance, Industrial
Revolution, Technologies and Theories, today, management possesses a remarkable position in
the field of both academic and practitioners' study. The role and dynamics of management have
evolved. It will keep evolving with modifying the old theories as FedEx and Amazon did by
digitalising Taylorism. The organization should work on this more and more as the flexibility in
the management structure is one of the basic points to gain competitive advantage.

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