This book brings together a broad and stimulating range of literature and academic research to provide a comprehensive, critical evaluation of the development of management theory from the late eighteenth century to the present day. It provides a clear outline of the subject's main themes through examination of the lives and writings of more than twenty-four key thinkers from F.W. Taylor, Max Weber and Mary Parker Follet through to Peter Drucker, William Ouchi, Charles Handy, Geert Hofstede, Kenichi Ohmae and Rosabeth Moss Kanter. Each chapter identifies the thinker's main contribution to management theory and also provides a critical review, discussion questions and a guide to further reading for those wishing to take their studies further. Chapters can be used as free-standing essays but patterns of interaction and influence between different thinkers are highlighted and interlinked between chapters. This text is an accessible summary of the evolution of key themes in management thought. Undergraduate and postgraduate students of business studies, management and organizational behaviour will find this book to be invaluable.
It will also appeal to general readers looking for an insight into management thinking.