Editors' introduction

Citation

Nyland, C. and Lauer Schachter, H. (2000), "Editors' introduction", Journal of Management History (Archive), Vol. 6 No. 6. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmh_arc.2000.15806faa.001

Editors' introduction

This symposium explores the role women played in disseminating scientific management and implementing its ideas in a wide range of settings including business, government and non-profit organizations. The past decade has seen intense re-examination of the genesis and ethos of scientific management but the impact of gender on its development has hardly been explored.

Some commentators argue that a science of management held special appeal for men because society at the turn of the century equated science and efficiency with masculinity. At best, this analysis is partial. From the start, scientific management appealed to female reformers. Leaving out the female role gives a narrow vision of scientific management's actual constituency. By focusing on the role of women, the following articles afford a rounder and more accurate picture of the theory and its impact on organizations.

We want to thank Guy Alchon, University of Delaware; Erik Bloemen, Free University of Amsterdam; Brian Fry, University of South Carolina; David Goldberg, Cleveland State University; Laurel Graham, University of South Florida; Daniel Nelson, University of Akron; Ellen O'Connor, FX Palo Alto Laboratory; Ruth Oldenziel, Belle van Zuylen Institute, University of Amsterdam; James Stever, University of Cincinnati; Lucy Taksa, University of New South Wales (Australia); Stephen Waring, University of Alabama at Huntsville and Daniel Wren, University of Oklahoma for help in reviewing manuscripts. Working with them was a pleasure.

Chris Nyland and Hindy Lauer SchachterMonash University, Australia