管理百年进化史：那些改变世界的大咖们

Many people take part in management at work. Their methods and styles vary enormously, as do their results. This can create the impression that management is a kind of wisdom, a personal philosophy, or an art that depends on individual talent and experience and therefore cannot be replicated.

It is not wrong to call management an art. Management is intensely practical, and different environments, people, and situations call for different responses. I remember a saying: “True management thinkers often come from companies, not universities.” Peter Drucker and Jack Welch, for example, came from the business world. Their ideas emerged from extensive practice and were refined through experience.

But this does not mean management has no patterns we can learn. Management is also a science, with theoretical frameworks and methods. Managing well does not require us to rediscover everything for ourselves. By studying the methods and experience accumulated over more than a century, we can avoid many unnecessary detours.

The history of management can be traced back to ancient civilizations. Building the Egyptian pyramids, for example, must have required rigorous planning and organization to coordinate a vast workforce. Management was also indispensable under feudal systems and religions, during the Age of Exploration, and throughout the early Industrial Revolution.

Management as a formal discipline, however, began to take shape after Frederick Taylor proposed scientific management in 1890 and published *The Principles of Scientific Management* in 1909. For the first time, management had a systematic theoretical framework. Its development then passed through several important stages.

I. 1890–1940: The Classical School

1. Frederick Taylor: Scientific Management

Taylor is known as the father of scientific management. He emphasized improving efficiency through scientific methods.

Standardizing work: Identify the most effective way to perform a task and eliminate unnecessary movements.

Scientifically selecting and training workers: Match people to roles according to their abilities and provide training to improve their skills.

Performance-based compensation: Motivate employees to improve efficiency.

A clear division of responsibilities: Managers plan; workers execute.

Taylor's theory greatly improved productivity. Ford's assembly line is a successful application of scientific management.

However, an excessive pursuit of standardized work can also reduce workers to mechanical roles and neglect or restrict human creativity and needs.

2. Henri Fayol: Administrative Management Theory

Fayol proposed five functions of management:

Planning: Develop a course of action.

Organizing: Allocate resources and people.

Commanding: Guide and motivate employees.

Coordinating: Align the actions of different departments.

Controlling: Monitor progress and correct deviations.

He also summarized fourteen principles of management, including division of work, authority and responsibility, discipline, and unity of command.

Fayol's theory laid the foundations for modern organizational structures and functional divisions and has had a lasting influence on management practice, including at General Electric.

3. Max Weber: Bureaucracy (Hierarchical Organization)

A clear hierarchy: Define how authority and responsibility are distributed.

Rules and procedures: Standardize processes and policies.

Impersonality: Base decisions on objective standards rather than personal feelings.

Weber's theory helped ensure organizational efficiency and stability. The German railway system is a classic example of bureaucratic management.

However, bureaucracy can lead to rigidity and a lack of innovation.

II. 1930–1950: The Behavioral School

1. Elton Mayo: The Hawthorne Experiments

Interpersonal relationships and employees' sense of belonging have an important influence on productivity.

Social factors: Informal organizations and group norms shape employee behavior.

Mayo helped move management toward a more human-centered approach that paid greater attention to employees' needs. His work had an important influence on modern human resource management and organizational behavior. Western Electric, for example, benefited from this theory.

2. Abraham Maslow: The Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow proposed the famous five-level pyramid of human needs:

Physiological needs

Safety needs

Social needs

Esteem needs

Self-actualization needs

Maslow emphasized understanding the level of need an employee is seeking to satisfy and using that knowledge to awaken inner motivation. His theory offered important guidance for modern incentive systems, as seen in Google's people-centered practices.

3. Douglas McGregor: Theory X and Theory Y

Theory X: Assumes employees are naturally lazy and require strict supervision and control.

Theory Y: Assumes employees are responsible and desire achievement and self-development.

McGregor analyzed how different management styles affect employees. A manager's assumptions have a profound influence on employee behavior and organizational culture. Positive trust and support can unlock employees' potential, as at IBM.

III. 1940–1960: The Quantitative School

1. Harold Simon: Decision Theory

Bounded rationality: People's decisions are constrained by limited information and cognition.

Satisficing: In complex situations, seek a solution that is “good enough.”

Simon advocated using quantitative analysis and models to improve the quality of decisions and make decision-making more scientific, as at Procter & Gamble.

2. William Edwards Deming: Statistical Quality Control

Continuous improvement (the PDCA cycle): Plan, do, check, and act.

Data-driven management: Use statistical methods to control and improve quality.

Deming's theory had a profound influence on modern quality management systems, including Toyota's lean management.

IV. 1960–Present: Modern Schools of Management

1. Peter Drucker: Management by Objectives and Knowledge Management

Management by objectives (MBO): Managers and employees jointly set clear goals.

Knowledge workers: Value employees' knowledge and capacity for innovation.

Drucker's work has had a major influence on management education and management thinking, including at General Electric, Hewlett-Packard, and Intel.

In the knowledge economy, a company's ability to motivate and manage knowledge workers and build a learning organization is essential to remaining competitive.

2. Harold Koontz: Contingency Theory

There is no universal approach to management: Strategies should be adjusted to suit the environment, task, and people.

Flexibility: Organizational structures and management methods need to adapt to change.

Koontz believed that management strategies should change with the environment. Management requires effective communication and coordination, strong interpersonal relationships, and teamwork. Organizational structures must remain flexible enough to adapt to changing conditions, as at Coca-Cola.

In a VUCA world—volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous—contingency thinking helps organizations respond quickly to market change.

3. Michael Porter: Competitive Strategy

Three generic strategies: Cost leadership, differentiation, and focus.

The Five Forces model: A tool for analyzing the competitive structure of an industry.

Porter emphasized that companies must gain competitive advantage through cost leadership or differentiation, as Walmart has done.

From classical to modern management, the field has continually explored how to improve organizational efficiency, inspire employees' potential, and respond to complex environments. Learning from the experience of those who came before us—and then finding methods and a style suited to our own teams—can help us avoid many unnecessary detours.