BUS208: Principles of Management

Management began to materialize as a practice during the Industrial Revolution, as large corporations began to emerge in the late 19th century and developed and expanded into the early 20th century. Many large corporations during the early 1900s did not have any competition and thus dominated their industries. At the time, each employee was seen as a cog in a wheel – a useful yet expendable part of a business’s operation. But the development of the assembly line in the 1910s and 1920s and the attendant automation of production processes drove changes in management strategy and required businesses to rethink how they managed their resources (i.e. their people, finances, capital, and tangible assets). The fundamental concepts of modern management were famously explored by Frederick Winslow Taylor, an American engineer who wrote The Principles of Scientific Management. Published in 1911 and based on research conducted by Taylor, the book’s analysis aimed to couple the efficiency needs of a business with the specialized talents of its employees. Taylor’s conclusion was that employees are almost always driven by the desire to earn money. Because businesses at the time had very little production capacity, the principles of management aimed toward driving sales by enticing employees with more money for increased production. As such, modern management’s focus was on producing as much product as possible to meet consumer demand for goods and services.