Early management Writers
Chapter- 4

Compared with the two preceding centuries, the 1800s brought forth a veritable wealth of literature on management. Economists perceived of and wrote about managerial concepts, the functions of management, and the applications of management theory.

Samuel P Newman wrote in 1835, needed to constitute a good undertaker, a combination of qualities, rarely found united in the same individual. He should possess an unusual share of foresight and calculation, that his plans may be well laid. He must also exhibit perseverance and consistency of purpose in carrying his plans into execution. This is assuredly an impressive set of qualifications to add to Adam Smith’s simple list of “order, economy, and attention”. J.S. Mill adds two important qualifications to the list: Fidelity and zeal. Moving into the concepts of management, many of the economists of this period distinguished between the functions of a manager and the functions of the organizations. Most of the writers write about functions of a manager. Turgot was concerned with direction and control, Bowker felt that organizing and directing were a manager’s chief functions. Of all these writers, Neman alone appeared to have the sharpest focus when he wrote that a manager’s functions are “planning, arranging, and conducting the different processes of production.

Actually time and motion study was researched by Adam Smith in his Wealth of Nations. The economists of this period were apparently split on the subject of whether ownership and management could successfully be separated. Adam Smith assures us that it was common in his day.

Managerial Functions and Principles: of the five generally recognized functions of management several economists seem to consider planning the most important, Marshall among them, Laughlin gives the reasoning behind this when he says: he who