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Reappraising the Genesis of Managerialism: A Re‐examination of the Role of Accounting at the Springfield Armory, 1815‐1845

Keith Hoskin (University of Warwick)
Richard Macve (University of Wales, Aberystwyth)

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal

ISSN: 0951-3574

Article publication date: 1 June 1994

1167

Abstract

In a 1977 publication Alfred Chandler singled out the Springfield Armory as the site where single‐unit management was pioneered in the United States, crediting Superintendent Roswell Lee (1815‐1833) with establishing a first “managerial” approach to work discipline and labour accounting. However, as economic breakthrough came only in 1841/2, it has since been argued that Lee′s role has been overestimated. Re‐examines archival evidence to show that: the changes of 1842 at Springfield were not due to external economic pressures, but to pressure exerted by West Point graduates in the Ordnance Department; Lee, as the dominant arms manufacturer in the 1820s, was not “held back” by economic factors from implementing any changes he desired; and his system of work organization was never even potentially managerial, with his accounting system in particular having been fundamentally misinterpreted. The evidence reinforces the case for viewing the invention of modern business and managerialism as primarily a disciplinary breakthrough.

Keywords

Citation

Hoskin, K. and Macve, R. (1994), "Reappraising the Genesis of Managerialism: A Re‐examination of the Role of Accounting at the Springfield Armory, 1815‐1845", Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Vol. 7 No. 2, pp. 4-29. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513579410058229

Publisher

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MCB UP Ltd

Copyright © 1994, MCB UP Limited

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