EVOLUTION OF THE THEORY OF MANAGEMENT

Evolution of management is concerned with the various development stages that management has gone through over the years. Historically, Management was not recognised as a distinct subject such as Geography, Economics, Mathematics, Physics, Law, Accounting, etc. worthy to be studied in educational institution.

The tendency was therefore for people to marginalise it since the Geographer, Economist, Mathematician, Physicist, Lawyer, Accountant, etc. who establishes his business and was in charge of affairs was regarded as a manager.

Interestingly, if one has not studied courses such as Law and Accounting one cannot call himself a Lawyer or an Accountant respectively.

The same cannot be said of Management since it is loosely used to apply to anybody who has established his own business and is in total control of it.

CHANGING TREND IN MANAGEMENT

The concepts of evolution and development have created a paradigm shift in emphasis to the point that management is now regarded as a distinct subject or course of study vigorously studied in many educational institutions. The existence of many management and administration educational institutions the world over are practical demonstration of the fact that there has been a paradigm shift in emphasis. For example, we have Business Schools all over the world such as The Nottingham Business School in UK, KNUST School of Business, Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, Institute of Professional Studies to mention a few

Even though the renowned authorities in the field of management achieved fame through personal intuition, practice and experience [Art], the fact remains that many went through formal training in it [Science].

The various principles of management propounded by Henri Fayol were the results of many years of practice and formal training.

 INTER-DISCIPLINARY NATURE OF MANAGEMENT

Management has assumed inter-disciplinary dimension since it borrows ideas from various fields such as Economics, Law, Sociology, Psychology, Anthropology and Accounting.

The good general manager is the one who can articulate and demonstrate rich knowledge in many related disciplines in addition to the key functional areas of Management. For example, the Finance manager should be able to understand marketing issues relating to customers satisfaction, brand image and other related issues. 

Thus, the inter-disciplinary nature of management compels managers to broaden their knowledge in the relevant and related disciplines.

It can therefore be concluded that experts in the other relevant disciplines needed in management have also contributed to the evolution and development of management.