This is a great discussion, I'm really enjoying the glimpses at experiences people have had, good and bad! Does anyone know of a good book that looks at management theory from the historians' viewpoint? I'm thinking of an examination of the managment theory from Frederick Taylor's "scientific management" in 1911 through Total Quality Management, job process re-engineering, and more recent initiatives. I'm interested in both the history and the theory. I've never studied it formally but have been doing some reading on my own. This discussion has whetted my appetitite for more. Please reply to me OFF LIST and thanks in advance for any suggested books! One thinks of the 1950s as being the era of the struggling protagonist in the "Man in the Gray Flannel Suit" (Sloan Wilson's 1955 book; Gregory Peck's 1956 movie). On the other hand, some experts were thinking about what really was going on in the corporate world. And how to make that world work better, not just for the business, but for those working there. Here are some more good observations from K. Brantley Watson's talk before ICAF in 1959, just as pertinent now as then. I especially like the part about the limitations of an analytical, logical approach: "In business we cut off our noses to spite our faces sometimes by saying [to subordinates]: 'The purposes of this business, when it comes to making a profit, are none of your business. Your business is to do this job. You let me run the organization.' . . . .We have, as managers, a basic responsibility for [subordinates'] fundamental human well-being as members of this organization. And then the relationship, and the exercise of our management responsibility, becomes one not of controlling these people, suppressing them, keeping them in hand, but quite the opposite--of stimulating initiative; of encouraging suggestions, even critical comments that are constructive; of encouraging initiative and responsibility and the delegation of responsibility and participation; and encouraging all of the things that will make a person identify his effort with the basic purposes and objectives of our organization. . . . .When we have a rigid, inflexible management organization, where, as I say, the chart itself is the criterion of relationships, and the lines are criteria and channels of communication, and the law is the printed specification -- all of that, don't misunderstand me, all of that is essential to good management -- but when we make it the basic criterion of management, then I say simply that psychologically we do not realize the full potentialities of people. And so in all of our work I think our most important job as executives and managers is to establish the kind of climate, the kind of atmosphere, the kind of understanding, the kind of relationship which are of a co-operative nature; and on that basis, and on that basis alone, can we realize the full potentialities of people. . . . .You know, where we -- and I refer to myself now, but I used to be teaching as a professor--make a serious mistake is because we're trained to be thoroughly logical, thoroughly analytical, thoroughly precise, so every little part of a situation just fits in perfectly. People don't behave that way. People behave as much by intuition and by stimulation and motivation of an indefinite sort as they do by the precise word of the order. And we must take advantage of that by creating the kind of climate in which people are stimulated, in which they are motivated, in which they are enthusiastic, in which they feel that they are part of this thing. That affects communications, which is a most important skill and a most important requirement of good management." Maarja ________________________________________________________________________ Check out AOL.com today. Breaking news, video search, pictures, email and IM. All on demand. Always Free. A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List sponsored by the Society of American Archivists, www.archivists.org. For the terms of participation, please refer to http://www.archivists.org/listservs/arch_listserv_terms.asp. To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to [log in to unmask] In body of message: SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname *or*: UNSUB ARCHIVES To post a message, send e-mail to [log in to unmask] Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html Problems? Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>