Management History : Reflections On Key Thinkers In Management

Description

It is my great pleasure to serve as a specialissue editor for this issue of The Journal ofManagement History in ManagementDecision. The historical context in whichmanagerial theory and practice have evolvedis too often overlooked. Academics,researchers and practitioners tend to forgetthe past, and too often overlook historicalpatterns of which today’s theories and‘‘innovations’’ are but echoes. Conversely, toomuch history is written without an interestin revealing the cultural roots and patternsthat can inform and improve currentpractice. The historical context in whicheconomic and sociological phenomena occuroften sheds considerable light on the telos ofhuman action, the purpose toward whichmanagers and employees strive. Such contextsheds considerable light on econometric andempirical data that can reveal relationshipsbut not underlying purpose and meaning.Thus, history and management theoryshould inform each other. Rather than beviewed as a narrow and isolated subspecialty,a historical perspective needs to beintegrated with mainstream managementtheory and research. Jack Rabin asked me to edit a special issueon the history of human resourcemanagement (HRM) in response to my paper‘‘Continuous improvement in the history ofhuman resource management.’’ Thisprovided an opportunity to encourage humanresource scholars to examine the historicalcontext in which their fields and managerialpractice have evolved. The result wasgratifying. In ‘‘Continuous improvement in thehistory of human resource management,’’ Iargue that the evolution of human resourcemanagement can be viewed as a qualityimprovement process, as the minimization ofloss under a Taguchi loss function. Thehistory of HRM has proceeded through fourbroad stages: 1 the pre-industrial; 2 the paternalist; 3 the bureaucratic; and 4 the high performance. Each phase has balanced the competinginterests of employees, managers andexternal constituencies including investorsand customers. There has beenimprovement, or reduction in efficiencylosses, in each period. However, each periodhas tended to favor different ones of the threeinterests. The pattern of past gains suggestsfurther gains in the future. In his paper ‘‘The control of pensions: abrief history and possibilities for the future,’’R.L. Hannah examines the evolution ofpension governance in light of the largerhistory of the evolution of retirementschemes and the evolution of thought aboutthe relationship between managerialauthority and pensions. Hannah argues thatthe structure of control of modern pensionshas tended to encourage passivity onemployees’ part at the very moment thatmany management experts call forempowerment of employees and enhancedparticipation. Hannah’s argument thatpension policy ‘‘is hardly the stuff of ademocratic society’’ sounds prophetic in lightof recent events at Enron. In ‘‘Human resource accounting: ahistorical perspective and futureimplications,’’ Flamholtz et al. argue that thehistory of human resource accounting(HRA) illustrates how academic researchcan influence and improve managementpractice. The paper traces HRA’s intellectualhistory from the work of Likert, Brummert,Pyle and Flamholtz in the 1960s throughrecent applications at various large firms,such as Skandia. Flamholtz et al. suggestthat financial accounting has tended to favorconservatism over relevance with respect tothe valuation of human resources. Theresult is likely inefficiencies in capitalmarkets as critical HR variables remainhidden from investors. As theory hasinteracted with practice, firms have begunto experiment with ways to improve thereporting of human capital data in theirfinancial statements. The result is likelyimprovement in the information thefinancial markets will some day receive withrespect to HRM. Cohn and Friedman take a longerhistorical view and argue that the Bible andthe Jewish Talmud provide insights intomodern ideas in welfare capitalism (Jacoby,1997), job redesign, business ethics,compensation management and employeebenefits. While Flamholtz et al. suggest thatbetter financial information about theeconomic consequences of layoffs wouldlikely reduce the prevalence of the practice,Cohn and Friedman argue that biblical law discourages employment-at-will and soprovide a moral and historical argumentagainst down-sizing. In ‘‘The role of economics and industrialrelations in the development of the field ofpersonnel/human resource management’’,Kaufman argues that HRM has evolved out ofeconomics rather than psychology andorganizational behavior. Several decadesago, the field split into two paradigms,industrial relations and personnel/HRM. Theend result was that HRM was dissociatedfrom economics, and so lost much of itsemphasis on policy. However, in recent yearsthere is growing evidence of arapprochement. This can be seen in the rise ofstrategic human resource management aswell as in a burgeoning literature on theeconomics of HRM.The earlier phases of industrial relationsand human resource management studieswere infused with a historical perspective.Culture is ultimately historical and, tounderstand the aims and practices ofmanagement, history is an importantcomponent. It is hoped that the reader willenjoy these contributions. Mitchell Langbert Guest Editor Previously published in: Management Decision, Volume 40, Number 10, 2002