This book offers a short history of business administration in four parts. Part 1 takes the reader from 8000 BCE with the development of simple control techniques to the middle of the nineteenth century. At this time, normative, empirical, and theoretical approaches to business problems in the industrial area were developed. Furthermore, more powerful methodologies came into use. In Part 2, the criteria for science are discussed and related to the development of business administration as a science at the beginning of the twentieth century. Part 3 demonstrates, using Germany as an example, the development of business administration as strongly influenced by its societal environment. The cases of National Socialist Germany, the socialist environment of the German Democratic Republic, and the reconstruction of an academic-inspired business administration in Western Germany are provided as illustrative examples. Part 3 also presents a typology of major specializations in business administration, examples of their development, and a proposal for a curricular approach to the discipline. The fourth and final part presents the benefits of studying the history of management ideas.
This book is useful for academics in business administration, advanced students, and anyone who seeks to understand recent developments in business administration.
Author(s): Klaus Brockhoff
Series: Contributions to Management Science
Publisher: Springer
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 271
City: Cham
Preface
Contents
Part I: Before the Institutionalization of Business Administration as a Science
Chapter 1: Early Devices and Techniques in Western Asia and the Near East
1.1 Before Script and Numbers in Iraq
1.2 Early Bookkeeping in the Near East
1.3 Later Developments in India
1.4 Hebrew and Islamic Experiences Traveling to Europe
Chapter 2: Management of Homes, Estates, and Trade in Europe Until the Middle Ages
2.1 Management Ideas by Greek Philosophers
2.2 Management Ideas by Political Minds in the Roman Empire
2.3 Management Ideas by Theologians in Central Europe in the Middle Ages
2.4 Summarizing Observations
Chapter 3: The Age of Enlightenment and Beyond in Europe
3.1 Methodological Advancement: Induction from Experiments
3.2 The Problem of Compound Interest Solved by Logic
3.3 Comprehensive Books for Merchants
3.4 First Ideas on Business Administration as an Academic Discipline
Chapter 4: Three Streams of Knowledge Generation in Nineteenth-Century Europe
4.1 The Normative Approach
4.2 The Empirical-Realistic Approach
4.3 Theoretical Approaches
4.4 Interim Results
Part II: Criteria for Business Administration as a Science
Chapter 5: Indicators of a Science and Models of Its Development
5.1 Meanings of Science from Different Perspectives
5.2 The Existence of Essential Questions as a Characteristic of a Science
5.2.1 Four Authors on Important Questions
5.2.2 What Is a Firm?
5.2.3 Why Do Firms Exist?
5.2.4 Who Are the Entrepreneurs, and Why Can They Exist?
5.2.5 Interim Result
5.3 Systematic Procedures to Develop New Knowledge: Controlling the Toolbox
5.3.1 Value Judgments
5.3.2 Falsifiability
5.3.3 Scientific Control and its Disregard
5.3.4 Interim Results
5.4 Preservation of Knowledge or the Cost of Forgetting
5.4.1 The General Problem
5.4.2 Loss of Knowledge in Business Administration
5.4.3 Interim Results
Chapter 6: Scientific Progress in General and in Business Administration
6.1 The Individual
6.2 The Discipline
6.3 Scientific Advance by Solving Puzzles
6.4 A Model for Business Administration?
6.5 Purposes of Science
Chapter 7: Emerging Scientific Infrastructure for Business Administration
7.1 Starting Business Schools
7.2 Publications for the Discipline
7.3 Professional Associations to Serve Scientific Advances
Part III: The Institutionalized Science
Chapter 8: In Search of an Objective Function and a Name
8.1 Ideological Controversies in Germany
8.2 Pragmatic Solutions in the USA
Chapter 9: Decline Under Political Influences and Two New Beginnings: The Cases of Germany
9.1 The Period 1933-1945
9.1.1 The Human Aspects
9.1.2 Mainstream Business Administration
9.1.3 New Ideas in Niches
9.2 Business Administration in the German Democratic Republic
9.3 Gutenberg´s Approach in the Federal Republic of Germany
9.3.1 A Sketch of the Post-War Situation
9.3.2 New Paradigms
Chapter 10: Sketches on Developing Specializations
10.1 Modes of Specialization
10.2 Examples of Functional Specializations
10.2.1 Accounting
10.2.2 Human Resources and Organization
10.2.3 From Sales Management to Marketing
10.2.4 Capital Budgeting and Finance
10.3 Cross-functional Specializations
10.3.1 Research and Innovation Management
10.3.2 Specialization by Phase: Firm Growth
10.4 Observations on Specializations
Part IV: Limitations, Further Needs and Lessons Learned
Chapter 11: Limitations and Further Needs
Chapter 12: Lessons Learned: Reasons for Histories of Management Ideas
Index
