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Article
Publication date: 9 January 2009

D. Reed Abraham, M. Chad Gibson, Milorad M. Novicevic and Robert K. Robinson

The purpose of this paper is to make a specific attempt of historicizing outstanding academic leadership in the field of management history.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to make a specific attempt of historicizing outstanding academic leadership in the field of management history.

Design/methodology/approach

By using the biographical method and applying it to the material contained in Hodgetts's video interview of Wren and Bedeian's autobiography, the authors examine how outstanding management laureates, Wren and Bedeian, look back on their own lives and the people who influenced them.

Findings

The intellectual and institutional origins of their life stories are traced and the factors in Wren's and Bedeian's lives that might explain their pathways to becoming the US outstanding management historians as the Academy of Management Fellows are assessed.

Practical implications

The paper highlights the most outstanding achievements of the past in a manner that might be valuable when addressing the present day concerns about outstanding teaching and research in the field of management history.

Originality/value

The unique contribution of this study is its focus on showing how the manner in which outstanding management historians narrate the past may explain their present‐day achievements, and thus help readers understand that very past.

Details

Journal of Management History, vol. 15 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1751-1348

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 September 2010

Joyce Thompson Heames and Jacob W. Breland

The purpose of this paper is twofold: to report the number of articles in the business academic literature that have been written about the pioneers depicted in a 1977 Daniel Wren…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is twofold: to report the number of articles in the business academic literature that have been written about the pioneers depicted in a 1977 Daniel Wren and Robert Hay study; and to report the findings from a replication and extension of that study.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper employed a systematic literature review combined with an empirical replication and extension of the 1977 study.

Findings

The literature review revealed that 101 articles referenced only a few of the 1977 identified pioneers. In fact 47 of the articles were about three of the pioneers – keeping them firmly in the academic institutional memory, while others have fallen into insignificance. The results of the new study identified seven new names for the list of top ten, while three remained steadfast. Frederick Taylor was number one on both lists. Interestingly, no woman made the top ten.

Research limitations/implications

The replication and extension is a strength and limitation in which the authors were able to meticulously follow Wren and Hays' methodology, yet prevented the inclusion of possible viable new sources.

Practical implications

This piece calls for the continuation to rediscover history as a backdrop for research.

Originality/value

The paper reminds us of the value of preserving business academic institutional memory.

Details

Journal of Management History, vol. 16 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1751-1348

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 September 1999

Jane Whitney Gibson, Richard M. Hodgetts and Jorge M. Herrera

This paper discusses the lives and contributions of five key members of the Management History Division: Arthur G. Bedeian; Alfred A. Bolton; James C. Worthy (now deceased);…

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Abstract

This paper discusses the lives and contributions of five key members of the Management History Division: Arthur G. Bedeian; Alfred A. Bolton; James C. Worthy (now deceased); Charles D. Wrege; and Daniel A. Wren. Each has proved himself a teacher and intellectual leader in matters of fundamental concern to management history.

Details

Journal of Management History, vol. 5 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-252X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 June 2015

Daniel A. Wren

The purpose of this paper is to trace the European and British activities of Wallace Clark and his consulting firm with public sector agencies and private firms implement Henry L…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to trace the European and British activities of Wallace Clark and his consulting firm with public sector agencies and private firms implement Henry L. Gantt’s chart concept.

Design/methodology/approach

Archival records and secondary sources in English and French.

Findings

Developed to meet the shipbuilding and use needs for the Great War (World War I), the Gantt chart was disseminated through the work of Wallace Clark during the 1930s in numerous public sector and private organizations in 12 nations. The Gantt concept was applied in a variety of industries and firms using batch, continuous processing and/or sub-assembly lines in mass production. Traditional scientific management techniques were expanded for general management, such as financial requirement through budgetary control. Clark and his consulting firm were responsible for implementing a managerial tool, the Gantt chart, in an international setting.

Research limitations/implications

Some firms with which Clark consulted could not be identified because the original records of the Wallace Clark Company were disposed of by New York University archival authorities. Industries were identified from the writings of Pearl Clark and Wallace Clark, and some private or public organizations were discerned from archival work and the research of French and British scholars.

Originality/value

This is the first study of the diffusion of a managerial tool, developed in America by Henry L. Gantt, into Europe and Britain through the contributions of Wallace Clark.

Details

Journal of Management History, vol. 21 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1751-1348

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 24 October 2022

Jeff Muldoon, Milorad M. Novicevic, Nicholous M. Deal and Michael Buckley

The purpose of this paper is to examine what qualities contributed to the durability of The Evolution of Management Thought (EMT) as a classic that provided scholars a grand…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine what qualities contributed to the durability of The Evolution of Management Thought (EMT) as a classic that provided scholars a grand narrative of management history for half a century. Specifically, this paper aspires to reveal how the EMT has overcome the boundedness of time over the past 50 years by being both timeless (signaling continuity/permanence) and historical (signaling change/contingency).

Design/methodology/approach

The authors analyze both the metaphorical (i.e. universal) and the historical (i.e. particular) meanings that the EMT authors have communicated over eight editions of the classic.

Findings

The authors found that Wren and Bedeian have managed to balance temporality and referentiality in the EMT by writing it as the “practical past” of management. The authors also found that the authors ensured the ongoing renewal of their classic by innovating it as an everlasting contemporary text.

Originality/value

This paper provides an original analysis of the EMT explaining why it is a “classic” of management history. The analysis presented in this paper reveals why this timeless work has been a singular touchstone that exemplifies the history of management discipline.

Details

Journal of Management History, vol. 29 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1751-1348

Keywords

Content available
Article
Publication date: 14 September 2015

Shawn Carraher

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Abstract

Details

Journal of Management History, vol. 21 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1751-1348

Article
Publication date: 1 March 2004

Daniel A. Wren and Arthur G. Bedeian

Lenin advocated “Taylorization” (i.e. scientific management), to rebuild post‐revolutionary Russia's economy. The evidence, however, indicates that Lenin's advocacy caused…

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Abstract

Lenin advocated “Taylorization” (i.e. scientific management), to rebuild post‐revolutionary Russia's economy. The evidence, however, indicates that Lenin's advocacy caused conflict within the communist party, and scientific management was rarely implemented successfully. Noting a rhetoric‐reality gap, the paper explains the difference between Lenin's advocacy and actual practice. Lenin wished to convey the message that his regime was progressive, using the latest management techniques. Rather than following scientific management precepts, pressure was placed on Soviet workers to increase productivity without improving work methods. The paper's conclusion is that Lenin's advocacy of scientific management was a leader's rhetoric, a political expediency, and it would be misleading to connect scientific management with the practice of management in post‐revolutionary Russia.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 31 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 September 1995

Daniel A. Wren

Examines the debate about the value of the experiences ofpractising managers in building management theory. Henri Fayol, anadvocate of the experimental method, built his…

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Abstract

Examines the debate about the value of the experiences of practising managers in building management theory. Henri Fayol, an advocate of the experimental method, built his administrative theory from his experiences. Examines the development of Fayol′s ideas before the publication of his major work, Administration Industrielle et Générale. A preview of other works reveals new translations and sources of documentation.

Details

Journal of Management History, vol. 1 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1355-252X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 August 2001

Daniel A. Wren

Successful corporate turnarounds occur, thus avoiding liquidation, but historical examples are few. In late nineteenth century France Henri Fayol became managing director (CEO) of…

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Abstract

Successful corporate turnarounds occur, thus avoiding liquidation, but historical examples are few. In late nineteenth century France Henri Fayol became managing director (CEO) of a vertically integrated iron and steel firm and made various decisions that retrieved the firm from the brink of liquidation. In examining his career, the competitive nature of the industry, and his decisions, it is suggested that he employed a deliberate and comprehensive corporate strategy to guide the firm toward its objectives. While he developed his theory of management from these experiences and claimed that its application was the primary cause of the turnaround, this paper suggests that there were several other factors at work.

Details

Management Decision, vol. 39 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 November 2002

Daniel A. Wren, Arthur G. Bedeian and John D. Breeze

Among modern scholars and students there is an increasing distance between the fundamental thoughts of early management writers and contemporary, often secondary, accounts of how…

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Abstract

Among modern scholars and students there is an increasing distance between the fundamental thoughts of early management writers and contemporary, often secondary, accounts of how these pioneers developed their ideas. This shortcoming can be remedied by seeking original sources from when a pioneer’s ideas were being formulated and from the context within which this occurred. We examine examples of how others have furthered our understanding of management history by the discovery and translation of pioneering writings and present a rare, out‐of‐print translation and a previously untranslated and unpublished presentation from the French pioneer, Henri Fayol. These presentations to his colleagues in the mineral industry reveal Fayol’s early reflections as they would later evolve into his classical book, Administration Industrielle et Générale.

Details

Management Decision, vol. 40 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

Keywords

1 – 10 of 131