Management In Antiquity

The need for a systematic study of management was not realized till the beginning of the present century and the study of management as a distinct discipline is a product of the twentieth century. However management practice in some forms did exist among human beings of the early generations while they lived together in groups. Thus management is as old as human civilization itself.

The Egyptians applied the management functions of planning. Wising. Leading and controlling to construct the pyramids. Alexander, the great, employed staff origination to en-ordinate a testifies during the military campaign. The Roman Empire developed a well defined organizational structure that greatly facilitated communication a3 control. Management practices and concepts were discussed by Socrates in 400 B.C. Plato described job specialization in 350 B.C. and Arabia listed several leadership traits in 900 A.D. In addition to this, management thoughts have come from the Roman Catholic Church, military organizations and Camera lists of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. These contributions centered on the fields of principles of specialization, selection and training of subordinates and effective use of staff in the performance of major activities.

           

During the whole periods depicted the developments the field of management centered on the following:

A. Used written rules and regulations for governance;

            B.  Used management practices to construct pyramids;

            C. Used extensive set of laws and policies for governance,

            D. Used different governing system% for cities and states;

            E. Used organization structure for communication and control;

            F. Used extensive organization structure for government agencies and the a

            G. Used organization design and planning concepts to control the seas. 

Although the management function was practiced thousands of years back, it was not considered an important field of study for severe W centuries. Earlier management functions were centered on political activities leading to expansion of empire and its maintenance. The Ronne Empire was for example, essentially a governmental organization and h4 an unlimited power of taxation. But it was not interested in maximizing sale or minimizing cost.

Business management was then practically absent because, in the early days, there was hardly a large business organization until   18th century when family business first emerged. In the later periods i.e. the 19 century, however, a few people began to concern themselves with basic management problems. The pioneering personalities in this respect are James Watt. Mathew R. Bolton. Robert Owen and Charles Babbage. The real development of management as a science was the work of Frederic Winslow Taylor and his associates during the Scientific Managcmc movement that developed around 1900.