We would like to invite you to participate in the session on the development of modern management over the last 100 years at the World Economic History Congress in July 2012.
The aim of the session is to investigate the success of management from an interdisciplinary perspective as a time-biased, cultural and global phenomenon.
We are interested in contributions from authors with different disciplinary backgrounds: economic political, cultural or global history, as well as management & organization studies, international business, anthropology or narrative studies.
The contributions will be published in a special issue of Management & Organization History.

Deadlines
A short proposal (1000 words) should be sent before 1 March 2012 to 100yearmanagement@gmail.com.
Acceptation of your paper proposal will be communicated before 1 April 2012.
During the Congress, 9-13 July 2012, we ask participators to present a full paper (6.000-8.000 words).

Session theme
Since the early twentieth century management has been a key force in the development of states, economies and private enterprises alike. Frederick Taylor’s (1911) and Henri Fayol’s (1916) scientific management is regarded as the first modern form of management. At the same time Max Weber presented his work on bureaucratization – a historical based theory on how to organize public and private organizations efficiently. 100 years after this, we cannot imagine a world without management.
This session will analyze why a historical approach of management is important for understanding economic history in its broadest sense. Contributors will study the rise of management, influential concepts in business and government and explain the success of management as a time-biased, cultural and global phenomenon. Finally, papers will analyze which historical approaches are most suitable for exploring management. Afterwards, contributions will be published in a special issue of Management & Organization History.
Only through a historical perspective one sees that the content of management has changed significantly. After scientific management, ‘military management’ (Marshall-aid) and Drucker’s integrated management followed. In the 1960s management rapidly spread worldwide when American consultancy firms settled in South America and Europe and advised both public and private organizations. In the 1980s management influenced popular culture deeply, when it became the overall bestselling genre, with gurus like C.K. Prahalad, selling millions of books. However, since the late 1990s these theories and gurus are debunked, but this did not hinder new concepts which focused on organizational learning and servant leadership to gain popularity.
Although management is often regarded as a Western capitalist concept, influential counter concepts existed throughout the history of management. For example, the Yugoslavian model of Workers’ self-management became highly fashionable in the West during the 1970s.
From a global perspective one can distinguish many more concepts. Leading management thinkers of the 1980s were Japanese, introducing Total Quality Management all over the world. In an ever globalizing world, and after the successful ending of apartheid, Ubuntu was applauded as a new African management concept with its focus on humaneness. After 2000 Chinese management techniques and the “Indian way” got attention, especially when it became clear that the 2008 financial crisis had significant less influence in India than in the West. It was pointed out that Indians had a different management approach focused on long term development, while the West had favored short term models of public cost cutting and shareholder value.

The session is initiated by
prof. dr. John Wilson (Business History, editor of Business History; UK University of Liverpool)
prof. dr. Michael Rowlinson (Management History. Editor of Management and Organizational History, UK Queens Mary London)
prof. dr. Matthias Kipping (professor of policy, chair in Business History, CA York University of Toronto)
prof. dr. Lars Engwall (Business Administration, SE University of Uppsala)
prof. dr. Luchien Karsten (Philosophy and Business Administration, NL University of Groningen)
dr. Rik Peters (Philosophy of History, NL University of Groningen)
Ronald Kroeze MA (History, NL VU University Amsterdam)
Sjoerd Keulen MA (History, NL University of Amsterdam)