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Information on Management: Management & Leadership

History of Management & Leadership

Looking at disciplines in a historical context can be useful.  It can explain why there was a focus on certain topics and reveal underlying assumptions about how the world is.  In general it's possible to identify several historical phases when we look at Management and Leadership literature

Modern management often traces its origins to the ideas of Frederick Winslow Taylor. Taylor's focus was on scientific management as you can read here http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6435.

Later the Human Relations School become highly influential, in particular the work of Elton Mayo. This movement focuses on individuals, looking at topics such as motivation, human development and potential. The task of managers came to be about aligning individual and organisational goals.  

More recently approaches such as 'systems thinking' and complexity have influenced views on how things happen.

The quotes below display the range of assumptions at play about management and leadership.

"In the past the man has been first; in the future the system must be first."

Frederick Winslow TaylorThe Principles of Scientific Management

"Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things"

Peter F. DruckerEssential Drucker: Management, the Individual and Society

"The things we fear most in organizations - fluctuations, disturbances, imbalances - need not be signs of an impending disorder that will destroy us. Instead, fluctuations are the primary source of creativity." Margaret Whetley, Leadership and the New Science ?? p. 19-20 

Books by 'Great Men' and Women on Leadership

Specialist Libraries on this topic

Because of their areas of interest some instututions may have especially strong collections. The list below lists some Libraries like this.  These Libraries can be visited or you may find useful items in searching their collections.

The Guru's

Being a Bit Critical

What is Leadership?

"A leader shapes and shares a vision which gives point to the work of others." - Charles Handy (1992)

"Leadership is not a person or a position. It is a complex moral relationship between people, based on trust, obligation, commitment, emotion, and a shared vision of the good." - Joanne Ciulla (1998)

"People ask the difference between a leader and a boss . . . The leader works in the open, and the boss in covert. The leader leads, and the boss drives." - Theodore Roosevelt

"Leadership is all hype. We've had three great leaders in this century - Hitler, Stalin, and Mao." - Peter Drucker, quoted in Fortune, 21/02/94

"The feminine leadership style emphasizes cooperation over competition; intuition as well as rational thinking in problem solving, team structures where power and influence are shared within the group . . . interpersonal competence; and participative decision making." - Marilyn Loden, Founder and president, Loden Associates, Management Review, December 1987

What is Management?

Looking at definitions of Management is very revealing.

It indicates the basic assumptions behind management theory about people, doing and leading.

Have a look at these ones:

"In the past the man has been first; in the future they system must be first . . . The first object of any good system must be that of developing first class men." - Frederick Winslow Taylor

"The function which distinguishes the manager about all others is his educational one. The one contribution he is uniquely expected to make is to give others vision and ability to perform. It is vision and moral responsibility that, in the last analysis, define the manager . . ." - Peter Drucker The Practice of Management

Collections of E Articles Available in the DkIT Library

The list below is of collections of largely full text e-articles that are freely available to DkIT staff and studends as a result of the Library leasing them.

Academic Search Complete

Business Source Complete

Emerald 

Irish Times

EPNet 

Science Direct

These have varying focuses. Business Source Complete includes the full text of the Harvard Business Review.  Emerald is useful for European examples and issues. The Irish Times and its archive is useful for any Irish related topics.