The administration as we know it today had its first events since ancient civilizations due to the need to survive and adapt as social organisms, organizing its tribes to supply families and the community with food, these were the first features of the administration, and thus day by day together with the evolution of man and companies, based on important events in history such as the industrial revolution, the administration has also evolved over time, creating new schools and administrative tools, going from being a way of life and survival in pre-Hispanic times to a science studied by many and applied by all companies in the world, making it one of the most persevering sciences throughout history.
KEY WORDS: Evolution, Administration, Companies, Civilizations.
INTRODUCTION
Administration according to Henry Fayol is to foresee, organize, direct, coordinate and control (Fayol, 1916), based on this concept, we can detect that administration has evolved through time.
The principles of administration came from the need for humans to form groups or tribes and manage each other in order to survive, this type of activity was considered a form of administration since the people who made up the tribes had to plan, organize, direct and control activities. As time went by and humans evolved administration, it also evolved making presence in different cultures that applied administration, such as Greece, Egypt, Rome, etc.
Thus reaching the medieval era where hierarchies were marked and artisan workshops were formalized, which were small companies created to exchange products.
Later with the industrial revolution and the creation of large companies, formal management studies emerged with the classical and scientific schools that later grouped together in a certain way that gave rise to the science that was named "Scientific Administration" with its theories., approaches, paradigms and advances.
Administration is a very broad concept that has been changing depending on the needs and perception of those who apply it, thus reaching the time when administration finds new ways and tools to be applied to companies.
DEFINITION OF ADMINISTRATION
Before starting to explain the history and evolution of the administration through the years, we must first understand the meaning of the word itself, nowadays when we hear the word "Administration" we can relate it to many aspects such as work, school, up to everyday life, this is because this concept has a very broad and universal meaning, because the administration can be presented anywhere there is a social organism, since there must be the coordination of the elements that make up said organism, therefore, there are many definitions of this word. To help understand a little more, some authors with different perceptions of the concept of administration will be made over time.
For Henry Fayol Administration it was in a few words what today most of us know as: Planning, Organizing, Directing, Controlling (Fayol, 1916) and it is worth mentioning until these days with modern administration we continue using this definition as a basis to understand the concept.
A clear example is Idalberto Chiavenato, who in his book defines administration as "The process of planning, organizing, directing and controlling the use of resources to achieve organizational objectives" (Chiavenato, 2004).
Changing the perception a little Aktouf defines the Administration as: An interdependent activity or series of activities aimed at achieving a certain combination of means that can generate the production of economic or socially useful goods / services and, if possible, profitable for the company for for profit (Aktouf, 2009)
"The process of structuring and using goal-oriented resource sets to accomplish tasks in an organizational setting" is how the word Hitt, Black, and Porter administration define it in the book "Administration." (Hitt, Black, & Porter, 2006)
On the other hand, Wilburg Jiménez Castro defines: "Administration as a social science made up of principles, techniques and practices and whose application to human groups allows the establishment of rational systems of cooperative effort", through which common purposes that individually cannot be achieved it is feasible to achieve. (Wilburg, 1990)
HISTORY OF THE ADMINISTRATION
As already mentioned above, administration appears wherever a social organism is found, this means that as soon as man began to work together or in society, the need to administer arose.
ORIGINS OF THE ADMINISTRATION
This has its first beginnings in the early days, with the first nomadic tribes which due to the need for survival were forced to become sedentary, and for this reason they were established in the caves, the administration at this time arose from this event due to the need of man to group together in order to survive, thus deriving the division of labor such as hunting, fishing and gathering among the members of the tribes; After man became sedentary, the discovery of fire and the wheel at this time, gave rise to new cultures in which power systems, rules and hierarchies were established as well as social divisions; Where the most powerful rulers or people were always found at the top of these divisions, all this sought that each one fulfill his functions to guarantee the well-being of the peoples.
A clear example of this are the Egyptians who began with the division of labor, the administration in this culture was reflected with the construction of the pyramids and the development of a bureaucratic system as control for agriculture in the towns.
Followed by them the Hebrews or Jews based on discipline with guidelines on social behavior and leadership through patriarchy which were the highest authority.
In Babylon, the Hammurabi code was created with a set of rules establishing labor and salary guidelines, among other things (US history organization, 2015) and the development of laws to conduct business ethically.
In China they also applied the administration and division of tasks when they build the great wall developed to protect the Chinese from their enemies and that is also where the public administration is booming through the advice of the philosopher Confucius. Moreover in Greece arise the principles of administration with Socrates, as well as work ethics.
The Romans also contributed the structure of the organization, they were the first to form guilds and procedures towards the public administration and manufacturing systems. Below is a list of the most important events from the origins of the administration.
Table 1. Origins of the administration (Chiavenato, 2004)
| ORIGINS OF THE ADMINISTRATION | ||
| YEARS | AUTHORS | EVENTS |
| 4000 a. C. | Egyptians | Need to plan, organize and control |
| 2600 a. C. | Egyptians | Decentralization in the organization |
| 2000 a. C. | Egyptians | Need for written orders. Use of consulting |
| 1800 a. C. | Hamurabi (Babylon) | Use of written and testimonial control. The minimum wage is established. |
| 1491 a. C. | Hebrews | Organization concept; scalar principle |
| 600 a. C. | Nebuchadnezzar
(Babylon) |
Production control and salary incentives |
| 500 a. C. | Mencius (China) | Need for standard systems |
| 400 a. C. | Socrates (Greece)
Plato (Greece) |
Statement of the universality of the administration.
Physical distribution and material handling. |
| 175 a. C. | Cato (Rome) | Description of the functions |
Finally, the Mayan culture should be mentioned, one of the most significant in Mexico that resided in Mesoamerica, in the territory now understood by the states of the southeast of Mexico, this culture demonstrated the application of administration in its organization and division of labor to survive As mentioned in the book "History and Religion of the Mayans" they developed large markets called p'polom. Merchants traveled long distances to supply their towns and families, among other activities where great skill was needed to manage (Thompson, 2000).
AVERAGE AGE OR FEUDALISM
Another important aspect to mention in the history of the administration and that left contributions, is the middle ages or feudalism which comprises from the 5th to the 15th century, at this time the most powerful people were the Feudal Lords who considered themselves the owners of the land or means of production and people who worked for them called deer, the contribution that the middle ages gave in the history of the administration was given in the creation of artisan workshops since they were small businesses managed and administered by artisan masters in these products of different types were manufactured, for example: shoes, carpenter, baker, etc. And in turn, he had people called apprentices. (Reyes Ponce, 2004)
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
The industrial revolution was divided into 2 stages, the first during the second half of the 17th century and the second during the second half of the 18th century. In his book "The History of management Thought", Claude summarizes that time has passed due to the great inventions Like the steam engine created by James Watt (1736 - 1819) and the mechanical loom invented by Cartwright in 1785, this revolution was born, along with the bourgeoisie, who are people considered as entrepreneurs since they had a high purchasing power and a good social position apart from owning the means of production, this caused the disappearance of artisan workshops and gave rise to companies, which managed a new modality, was massively and serially produced, unlike artisan workshops,which produced in small quantities and with special characteristics. (Claude S. George, 1968)
All these events marked a new concept of work that totally modified the social and commercial structure founded in those times.
XX CENTURY (ADMINISTRATIVE SCHOOLS)
Idalberto Chiavenato mentions that despite all these historical references about the constructions carried out during the antiquity, they testify to the need and ability to plan and guide efforts towards a common good, it was not until the beginning of the 20th century that the progress of the human knowledge the so-called science of Administration (Chiavenato, 2004).
Due to the birth of companies in the industrial revolution, the need arose for specialists to help manage new companies. For this reason, administrative schools were created in the twentieth century that created theories about the management of companies and their employees. However, the two schools that were the most outstanding and with the most contributions to modern administration were the classical and scientific ones.
CLASSIC SCHOOL
Classic management theory focused on an emphasis on structure and the functions an organization must have to achieve efficiency.
Mainly defining the structure, this theory states that administrative tasks should not be burdens, but shared responsibility among all employees of the company. This theory was always supported by an instrument for applying administrative practice called the administrative process (provide, organize, direct, coordinate and control).
Represented by Henry Fayol (1841 - 1925) who explained his theory of administration in his book Administration industrielle et Générale published in 1916 in which he defines the concept of administration as planning, organizing, directing and controlling (Fayol, 1916). And he stressed that every company has 6 basic functions:
1.- Technical functions
2.- Commercial functions
3.- Financial functions
4.- Security functions
5.- Accounting functions
6.- Administrative functions
And he also dictated 14 general principles of the administration that for him were malleable bases to adapt in any company:
1.- Division of labor
2.- Authority and responsibility
3.- Discipline
4.- Control unit
5.- Management unit
6.- Subordination of individual interests to general interests
7.- Staff remuneration
8.- Centralization
9.- Climbing chain
10.- Order
11.- Equity
12.- Staff stability
13.- Initiative
14.- Team spirit
And as we can see, these 14 principles dictated by Fayol since 1916 are still used today as bases in modern companies; These were among many the most significant contributions of this time with one of the parents of the Henry Fayol administration (Noreña & Castaño, 2015)
In summary, the classical school was concerned with increasing the efficiency of the company through the organization and application of general scientific principles of administration.
SCHOOL OF SCIENTIFIC ADMINISTRATION
This arises at the beginning of the 20th century due to the need for specialists who could increase productivity in companies, since it was very low due to the shortage of labor caused by new technologies. Its founder was Frederick Winslow Taylor (1856-1915). Author of 2 important works that left significant contributions to the administration, these were Shop Management and The Principles of Scientific Management.
One of Taylor's most significant contributions was his famous study of times and movements in assembly lines, which, as Fred E. Meyers puts it in summary, allows us to divide the operations carried out in a company into parts, and subsequently design and implement more efficient methods for carry out each activity (Meyers, 2002).
Thanks to the study of times and movements, improvements were achieved in the levels of production in the companies, but there were also oppositions on the part of workers since they feared that efficiency would end up ending jobs.
Taylor within his philosophy proposes four basic principles (Taylor, 1911) for companies:
- The development of a true science of administration. The scientific selection of workers. The scientific education and development of the worker. Intimate and friendly cooperation between managers and employees.
Among the main contributions of this school we have the fastest assembly lines, the application of the principles of efficiency to all organizations even without being industrial, good job design, among others.
OTHER SCHOOLS
SCHOOL OF HUMAN RELATIONS
Its founder Elton Mayo (1880-1949) discovers that by treating workers as human beings with psychosocial needs, he had a significant influence on productivity in the company. In a few words As Lina María Rendón expresses it in her thesis work "School of Human Relations", Mayo says that the level of productivity is not determined by the physical capacity of the worker or production capacity, as the classical theory said, but more either due to psychosocial factors, such as integration into a work team and a good work environment (Rendón Giraldo, 2011).
NEO-HUMANIST SCHOOL
The School or theory of neo-humanism can be considered as a continuation of the theory of human relations founded by Elton Mayo. In short, this school analyzes the behavior of people or workers individually based on the fact that a motivated human being improves the productivity of the company where he works.
Abraham Maslow in his work "Motivation and Personality" studies the needs of the human being (Maslow, 1987), and considers that man has different needs and that they occupy a certain hierarchy which accommodates in the following order:
1.- Physiological needs
2.- Security
3.- Social
4.- Estimate
5.- Self-realization
During the development of this school, theories known as "X" and "Y" also emerge.
STRUCTURAL SCHOOL
Its founder is Max Weber, it appears in the late 1950s and is made up of a group of psychologists and sociologists who are dedicated to studying human behavior. The structuralist current tries to balance the resources of the company, paying attention to both its structure and human resources. Its main objective is to study the problems of companies and their causes, paying special attention to aspects of authority and communication. Consider that there are four elements common to all companies: authority, communication, behavior structure, formalization structure
SCHOOL OF ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEMS
The School of administrative systems was founded by the biologist and philosopher Ludwig Von Bertalanffy and Bases his theory on 3 fundamental premises that says that the functions of a system depend on its structure, the systems belong to a larger one, they are always open. Scholars of the School of Systems point out that administration is considered as a system from the point of view of theory and practice.
QUANTITATIVE OR MATHEMATICAL SCHOOL
This school was consolidated during the Second World War, since it was at this stage that the application of mathematical methods was used to optimize different aspects of the company, be it logistics, resource allocation, production and provision of weapons during the war (Münch, 2010).
The biggest contribution was operations research. The Mathematical School has also contributed to the development of administration as we know it today, since decision-making is a fundamental part of companies.
Kaufman, Norbert Wiener and Irwin DJ Ross made great contributions to this school.
THE NEW ERA OF ADMINISTRATION
During the last quarter of the last century and so far this century, Organizations have had a great transformation for different reasons, mainly globalization. Today there are new approaches, schools, tools, philosophies, administrative techniques developed in the Modern era.
These tools or philosophies are useful for companies, today an example of some of them are: Empowerment, Reengineering, Just in Time, Benchmarking, Balanced Scorecard, Corporate Image, e-commerce, Kanban, Mentoring, Coaching, Total Quality, 5 S, 7 S, Franchising, Downsizing etc. All of these new administrative tools, despite having their bases based on traditional theories, have sought to give them a new approach based on business needs and global evolution.
Barba mentions that “world society, globalization and regionalization are phenomena that have marked the importance of the influence of institutions in economies, societies and cultures. One of the most relevant expressions in these processes is the emergence of new flexible forms of organization, which have proven to be more efficient than traditional bureaucratic models ”(Barba, 2000).
CONCLUSION
As a conclusion we can say that administration is a quite malleable concept depending on how you want to apply it and where, as we saw, it is not necessarily considered administration when you apply it to any company, since we observed that from the earliest civilizations this concept was used to organize tribes. We can also say that the administration evolves day by day adapting to the new needs of companies and people who are looking for new ways to manage and succeed in their activities, whether business or personal, but we also must not leave behind that despite the time elapsed The foundations of administration as we know it today were many years ago, and the techniques or tools used today lay their theoretical foundations in traditional schools.
Bibliography
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Sedentary: Who lives permanently in the place where it is established.
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