Introduction: The era of management: a historical perspective on twentieth-century management

Abstract

The twentieth century is a special period in the history of management. It is characterised by an extraordinary dissemination and diversification of management. However, the era consists of different phases. Inspired by the work of historians and philosophers of history who wrote on periodization as well as business and management historians who researched the development of management, we present a new periodization. Moreover, we suggest that the heyday of management in the 1980s and 1990s was followed by an ‘end’ of twentieth-century management. In addition, we argue that too much emphasised has been placed on the development of management in industry and too little on how management was adopted and represented in banks, public administration, politics and in popular culture. Thus we hope that a closer look at and different focus on twentieth-century management will improve our understanding of differences in the history of management and stimulate new debate.

Keywords::

• management history
• periodization
• management thought
• management outside industry
• twentieth century

Acknowledgements

This special issue is the result of the session ‘The century of management: from Taylor to Prahalad. The development of modern management from a historical, political, economic and global perspective, 1911–2011’ at the World Economic History Conference, Stellenbosch University, South Africa, 9–13 July 2012. We would like to thank the participants and audience for their contributions; Prof. Michael Rowlinson, as former editor of Management & Organizational History, for his support; and the external reviewers for their comments on earlier versions of this introduction.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Sjoerd Keulen

Dr. S.J. (Sjoerd) Keulen is a researcher of history at History Department of the University of Amsterdam and researcher of policy and politics for the Dutch House of Representatives. His fields of interest are management and business history, political history and the history of policy. He has published in journals such as Business History, Management & Organizational History, BMGN – Low Countries Historical Review and Journal of Organizational Change Management.

Ronald Kroeze

Dr. D.B.R. (Ronald) Kroeze is an assistant professor of History at VU University Amsterdam and researcher at the Amsterdam School for Culture and History of the University of Amsterdam. His fields of interest are management and business history, political history and political theory, the history of corruption and good governance and the use and representation of history. He has published in journals such as Business History, Management & Organizational History, BMGN – Low Countries Historical Review and Journal for Modern European History.