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1 – 10 of 133The 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…
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.
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This paper aims to provide evidence of pro-worker orientation and acceptance of socialist idealism in scientific management, with particular focus on Walter Polakov.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide evidence of pro-worker orientation and acceptance of socialist idealism in scientific management, with particular focus on Walter Polakov.
Design/methodology/approach
A range of original texts have been examined to identify the ideas expressed or accepted by the early scientific managers. These include Bulletin of the Taylor Society and the early publications of the socialist engineer and scientific manager Walter Polakov.
Findings
This paper shows how an avowed socialist is outspoken but unremarkable for the members of the Taylor Society in the 1910s and 1920s, contrary to the views expressed in textbooks and other histories which assert a deep antiworker bias in scientific management.
Research limitations/implications
This is limited to a historical analysis of the role and extent of involvement of the Marxist engineer Walter Polakov in the US scientific management movement in the 1910s and 1920s.
Originality/value
This paper offers insights into the workings of the Taylor Society using a biographical approach. In so doing, it demonstrates, in a new way, the verity of claims that the original proponents of scientific management were not authoritarian or anti-worker in their views or ideals, but, rather, open to progressive and socialist ideals.
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Daniel A. Wren, Regina A. Greenwood, Julia Teahen and Arthur G. Bedeian
This paper aims to highlight myriad accomplishments of C. Bertrand Thompson, who is perhaps most well known as a scientific-management bibliographer and a Taylor disciple, in the…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to highlight myriad accomplishments of C. Bertrand Thompson, who is perhaps most well known as a scientific-management bibliographer and a Taylor disciple, in the belief that his contributions as a pioneer management theorist and consultant in Europe deserve to be more widely known and more deeply appreciated.
Design/methodology/approach
Archival, primary and secondary sources were used in the research.
Findings
Thompson was among the first to bring management consulting to Europe. He understood the importance of adapting scientific-management principles to meet the diverse needs of each client for whom he consulted. Thompson’s strong belief and value system remained constant throughout his life.
Practical implications
Understanding the needs of customers or clients and adapting systems to meet those needs is essential in achieving success as a consultant.
Originality/value
By drawing on rarely accessed published and unpublished materials, this paper discusses Thompson’s many contributions to management thought and practice, most of which previously have not been highlighted in the referent literature.
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Project management has become the hip new trend in librarianship, appearing more and more in job listings, position descriptions, and professional development offerings. How did…
Abstract
Purpose
Project management has become the hip new trend in librarianship, appearing more and more in job listings, position descriptions, and professional development offerings. How did project management become the latest buzzword, and what does it have to offer our profession?
Methodology/approach
The answers to these can be explored through a look at the evolution of project management from the concept of Scientific Management to the certifiable skill set it is today, and how that evolution connects with librarianship’s own changes over time. This examination is done through a literature and historical analysis.
Findings
A deeper look at the basic concepts behind project management in light of this historical and practical connection with librarianship demonstrates how project management not only can be a useful skill for library workers to embrace today, but will also illuminate how our service-oriented structure may not mesh well with a concept rooted in business and computing. However, libraries that take a systems approach to implementing project management may see that they are better able to find success.
Originality/value
This study is largely theoretical and based on literature and historical analysis rather than practical implementation and testing. However, it does offer us a different way of looking at a trendy concept, one which helps ground the concept in theory and practice in a way that is seldom done. It also provides examples of tools to help libraries implement project management with a systems approach, which has not been addressed much in library literature.
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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…
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.
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The core of this paper is a reproduction of a study published in 1911 by Clark and Wyatt entitled “Scientific management as applied to women’s work”. The paper is significant…
Abstract
The core of this paper is a reproduction of a study published in 1911 by Clark and Wyatt entitled “Scientific management as applied to women’s work”. The paper is significant because it provides a very early eyewitness “warts‐and‐all” account of scientific management as applied to women’s labor. It is also of interest because Frederick Taylor both read the work and corresponded with one of the authors. Hence it provides a rare insight into Taylor’s ideas regarding gender relations and the place of women in industry.
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