[Solution] Part 2: The Theory and History of Management
Created at:
Author: Sarah Bennett
Managers can improve their performance by studying what other managers did in the past. Managers recognize that their success hinges on learning from the successes and failures of the past and understanding how different management theories have helped workers and organizations succeed.
Theory: Why It's Important
The word theory may conjure up images of professors giving lectures on abstract ideas with no relevance to daily life. However, management theory has many practical applications.
- A theory is a framework for organizing facts and knowledge and how they might function in the world.
- Managers use theories to develop ways of doing things better, so their employees and companies can succeed.
For example, if your company divides up work between employees and trains them to do their jobs in a certain way, then it is drawing on scientific management theory, which holds that companies can do better by improving how workers do their jobs.
History: Why It's Important
Just as understanding management theory is important, studying the history of management provides valuable insights for today's managers. By examining past practices and outcomes, managers can avoid repeating mistakes and build upon successful approaches.
The Early History of Management
While the formal study of management is relatively recent, management practices have existed since ancient times. Early civilizations developed sophisticated approaches to organizing labor, resources, and projects.
Select the word or words that best complete the sentence.
A book which analyzes how labor shortages in the early 1900s led to the development of ways to improve workers' performance is a book about .
View Explanation
History is a record of what happened in the past and why, and a theory is a framework that helps people understand how things work and develop ways of doing things better. A book on how events in the past led people to develop ways of doing things better is therefore a book covering both history and theory.
Select the correct response to the following question.
Why is it important for managers to study history?
- To appear more educated and therefore have a better chance of getting promoted
- To discover different ways to improve their company's performance and worker satisfaction
- To learn how and why managers and organizations have succeeded, failed, or changed what they did over time
View Explanation
Studying history gives managers the opportunity to learn about how and why other managers succeeded or failed in the past and how they dealt with situations that are similar to today's. For example, studying the events that led to the stock market crash of 1929 or the financial crisis of 2008 can help financial managers avoid mistakes that were made in the days leading up to those events.
Select the correct response to the following question.
Who among the following were the earliest to use management?
- Nineteenth-century industrialists and mathematicians
- Ancient Greeks and Romans
- Ancient Egyptians and Sumerians
- Ancient Chinese
View Explanation
Management has been in use since the earliest civilizations. Each of these cultures used management, but Ancient Egypt and the Sumerians were the earliest.
