ABSTRACT
On the threshold of World War I, a few thinkers were just becoming aware of management’s existence. When Karl Marx was beginning work on Das Kapital in the 1850s, the phenomenon of management was unknown. Rarely in human history has any institution emerged as quickly as management or had as great an impact so fast. Management has transformed the social and economic fabric of the world’s developed countries. Management books tend to focus on the function of management inside its organization. Management is thus what tradition used to call a liberal art— “liberal” because it deals with the fundamentals of knowledge, self-knowledge, wisdom, and leadership; “art” because it is also concerned with practice and application. One important advance in the discipline and practice of management is that both now embrace entrepreneurship and innovation. During the 1920s and 1930s, management was applied to many more areas and aspects of the manufacturing business.
