Answers to MGT 150 Video Questions, Chapter 2

1) When and under what historical circumstances does thinking about management as an identifiable discipline begin?

Management began to be thought of as an identifiable discipline during the Industrial Revolution. Although it was the first time that supervisory was a paid position, most of time supervisor/manager was synonymous with owner. At that time businesses started using coal as a new and more efficient source of energy, and as a result the scale of work and employees increased tremendously. It became very difficult to define how each job should be done, and to control the people doing the jobs. Thus, Taylor developed scientific methods of how and when each worker should do his/her job. Managers were taught to develop and follow an exact scientific plan of how to get maximum productivity of each worker by getting him/her to follow the plan precisely. Taylor encouraged owners to think of managing people as a profession of science, not mere chance development. Thus, ...