Historical Review of the main Management Gurus and their main contributions, from the Ancient World to Michael Porter, through the Industrial Revolution and the main theories that mark Modern Economics and Business Administration.
gurus-administration-contributions-martinTHE ADMINISTRATIVE GURUSES AND THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS
Introduction.
Throughout history we have heard the word guru, which is a person who has a command in some matter, someone who has solid knowledge, who is consulted in moments of doubt or need for guidance.
Over the years the gurus have manifested themselves in countless subjects and these have been of great help as well as essential since these, being a teacher for people, achieve a development of supreme wisdom in everyone who frequents it.
For example, Steve Jobs was a technology guru, his intelligence and innovation managed to transform the world of technology, he left a legacy in which he saw the future and guided people towards it. By doing so much competition in the market, he managed to get people involved to learn new things and enrich themselves with wisdom.
Just like Steve Jobs1 there are thousands of people who have left their mark in different areas, such as chemistry, physics, philosophy, or the most important: administration, I refer to this as the most important because this time we will focus on the importance of this and the most important gurus who have nurtured this branch.
As Henry Fayol put it, "the verb to administer refers to foresee, organize, command, coordinate and control." (Reyes, 2015) With this we can say that administration is vitally important both in daily life and in work, for this reason, at different times the "administration gurus" have been present, they have become our mentors, as
much of our learning is due to them.
1 He was an entrepreneur and business tycoon in the American computer and entertainment industries. He was a co-founder and CEO of Apple Inc. (Wikipedia, 2018)
Key concepts.
Guru:
1. In Hinduism, spiritual teacher or religious chief. (RAE, 2018)
2. Person who is considered a teacher or spiritual guide, or who is recognized as intellectual authority. (RAE, 2018)
Based on the interpretation of these two definitions, I can say that the word guru refers to someone with supreme knowledge in a certain branch or subject.
Administration.
"The process of planning, organizing, directing and controlling the use of resources to achieve organizational objectives" (Chiavenato, 2004)
The ancient world and its gurus.
Confucius, (551 BC - 479 BC)
He was a social theorist and philosopher. He is considered the father of ancient china. He was of very humble origins but this did not prevent him from giving up his fascination with ancient books. In time he became the official of the state of Lu.
He was known as Kung the Wise, this due to his wide and deep wisdom. Confucius' ultimate goal was wisdom and self-knowledge. Today, numerous families continue to uphold some of the Confucian principles of
this guru.
Confucian Rules:
6-The administrator must be of faultless conduct and without selfishness towards his colleagues.
1-It is the obligation of the rulers to study a problem in order to give the most adequate resolution.
2-The solution to a problem must be seeing it from an objective way and without exceeding the rules of professional ethics.
5-The mind of a ruler must always be working, to somehow improve his government without preferences of any kind.
4-The basic concern is the economic, but with collective effort it will be overcome.
3-It works towards a people, for which the ruler must have a broad criterion for solving problems and impartiality between officials.
Pericles, (495 BC - 429 BC)
He was a very important Athenian politician and orator. He was a strategist for Greece, in addition to having been called "The Olympian", due to his skills as a speaker and his imposing voice.
The greatest contribution that this guru made to the administration was the basic principle that refers to the selection of personnel.
Monarchies
Democracies There
were four evolutionary steps that the Greek government administration had, due to this, its states had:
Aristocracies
Tyrannies
The classical school and its gurus:
The basis of this school is the disorganized and accelerated growth of companies, this is due to the complexity in administration, all this ordered an approach in addition to scientific, refined. This school saw the need to increase the competition and efficiency of the organizations in order to obtain the best performance of its resources and to face the competition in the best way.
Henry Fayol, (1841 - 1925.)
He was an engineer and theorist of business administration. He was born into a bourgeois family. At the university, he studied civil engineering in mining and later graduated from it in 1860.
One of the most recognized works of Fayol is the book "Industrial and General Administration", this same one was a great contribution for the administration, but also for humanity, since in each of its pages his wisdom and passion for what is reflected is reflected. What does he do? This, if you ask me, is one of the many things that show why we consider Fayol as one of the greatest administrative gurus. The publication date of this book was in 1916, in Paris, France; your original title being thus: ”Administration industrielle et générale”.
In this masterpiece, the six functions in which a company can be divided were raised:
The administrative functions, which were related to the integration of the following 5 functions, this is by management. This first function coordinates and synchronizes the other functions of a company, this results in being above them always.
The accounting functions include everything related to statistics, costs, balances, inventories and records.
Security functions, the relationship of this function, is with the preservation and protection of people, in the same way as with goods. If we think for a few minutes about how to ensure that something is not only maintained in the proper way, but also that it can grow in the long or short term, we will come to the conclusion that preserving and protecting each of the people around it As well as goods, it is one of the most important points, since like human health, if we stay healthy and with the best defenses, we will achieve better performance.
Financial functions are related to capital management and its search. This focuses its importance on the investment made by the company in short-term realizable assets, such as marketable securities, inventories or cash.
The commercial functions, this function covers everything related to the sale, exchange and / or purchase.
The technical functions refer to the production of services or goods of a company, these two being of utmost importance for the conservation and development of companies.
Finally, one of his greatest contributions to the administration was the fourteen principles of it.
Frederick Winslow Taylor, (1856 - 1915)
He was an American engineer, born in German, Pennsylvania, years later, he died in Philadelphia.
His most important work is "Principles of scientific administration", 1911.
His main contributions are:
1. The planning principle
2. Principle of scientific selection of workers
3. Control principle
4. Principle of execution
5. The principle of the exception
His contributions with greater weight in the administrative field are:
1) The study of times and movements
2) Approach to the needs of having a scientific department for planning in the company
3) The standardization of tools and instruments, as well as the activities carried out
4) Saving time through use of calculation rules
5) The implementation of cards
6) The principle of exception
7) Encourage the “awakening” of all workers, and compensate them with bonuses
8) Differential rate
9) Principle of order through mnemonic systems
10) Formation of the modern cost system
Talking about Frederick Taylor supposes talking about a great legacy, since even, at present, it is considered as a mandatory reference for managers and workers, this, regardless of the time that passes, its considerations are of maximum utility.
Henry Gantt, (1861 - 1919.)
He was a mechanical industrial engineer. He claimed to be a humanist2, since even though he was a listener of Taylor, he had a feeling of sympathy for the less privileged. Focus your attention on forging an environment that will access greater cooperation from your employees, by setting a well-defined task.
Its main contribution in the administrative area is the "Gantt Chart", which consists of horizontal bars in which the list of activities goes at the bottom of the vertical axis and the dates (or the period of time in which must be performed) are located along the horizontal. The objective of this is to identify the activity that each resource will use and its duration, in order to avoid wasting time, in addition to giving the administrator a complete approach to the maximum use of the resources under his surveillance.
Another of his contributions was industrial efficiency, which is only produced through scientific analysis, the destination sought with this efficiency is to eliminate all waste and accidents that may occur.
Finally, the task bonus system, in this system I relate the premium paid to all administrators linked to the training of each of the workers.
Max Weber (1864 - 1920.)
He was a German economist and sociologist, in 1909 he established the "German Sociological Society", he is considered one of the creators of contemporary sociology.
Weber's main contributions to the administration are:
- I classify authority into three different types: Charismatic, rational and traditional.
2 It is to have the human being as a central value and not money or anything else. (Meanings, 2016)
- Achievement to define the functioning of the bureaucracy in an absolute way, related to the division of labor, orientation, impersonality, rules, selection and hierarchies of authority.
- I analyze the behavior of authority and roles in organizations.
The behavioral school, of behavior and its gurus:
The main objective of this school is to expose different effective ways to manage all the people within an organization. It is worth mentioning that this school arose from a manager, due to his frustration, this by discovering that people acted differently in the face of different changes and that they did not react with the behavior patterns as it was believed they would.
Elton W. Mayo, (1880 - 1949)
He is known as the forerunner of the human relations movement. He became famous through a study by Western Electric, the results of this made Mayo worried, due to the organization, this resulted in the origin of the direction of human relations. Mayo constantly stated that the failure to reach the set objectives was due to the lack of cooperation of the workers in the projects, if they are not heard by the superiors.
Among his main contributions are:
The organization is made up of different groups, these can be spontaneous or informal.
The interest of people who are within different organizations should not be limited to economics, but also in human relations, which is where all the needs for motivation and recognition are presented; From my point of view, motivation and recognition are key pieces to develop a job more effectively, since they drive us to give our best, to try harder every day.
If you want to maximize productivity in a job, it is necessary to consider psychological and social factors, since these are the most important.
Having high or low productivity is due to pressure from the work group.
Douglas McGregor, (1906 - 1964)
Born in the United States, over the years he became a management consultant. He created some ideas about administrative practice. Next, I will describe theory X and theory Y, these two are their main contributions, in addition, with them I manage to raise human behavior.
I. Theory X: Most people who have a job feel a dislike for it, every time they can avoid it, they will. The only reason why people work is to obtain money and with this power to cover their needs, in addition a high percentage of the population lack responsibility and need to be under supervision.
II. Theory Y: In this theory McGregor deduces that workers can believe that their employment is as natural as resting, people motivate and direct themselves if they are truly committed to the objectives.
The school of contingencies and its gurus:
The basis of this is to give an answer to the situations or problems that arise daily in a company or a group of individuals.
Joan Woodward, (1916-1971)
During the fifties Woorward, carried out an inquiry in which he included one hundred firms, this inquiry focused on the analysis of how each of the classical administrative principles were applied, in the different groups of companies in which their example was divided. Thus they discovered that there were patterns related to performance, that there were disagreements in how the most successful companies operated in relation to those with less success and all this was due to the technology that was used.
In the administrative field, the main contribution of this guru was the theory of contingencies. This theory consists of the approach to the functional relationship between environmental conditions and the appropriate management techniques to achieve each of the objectives of an organization. This theory emphasizes the efficiency of administrative operations initiated at a time and thus rejects standardization. With this we can conclude that technology and the environment are very important points in a circumstantial plan. With the passage of time we have verified the help that technology offers us, or sometimes how it can facilitate something.
The modern school and its gurus:
The main gurus of the modern school will be presented below.
W. Edwards Deming, (1900 - 1993)
Deming became a statistician, in addition to having been a professor at the university, a consultant, among other things. Its name is related to the growth and development of Japan. His most recognized work is “Out of the Crisis”, 1986. In this book Deming raised 14 very important points that even today continue to help companies to maintain themselves even after so many changes in the economic environment:
1) Consistency in the purpose of improving products and services
2) Adopt the new philosophy
3) No more relying on mass inspection
4) End the practice of awarding purchase contracts based solely on price
5) Continuously and forever improve production and service systems
6) Institute on-the-job training
7) Institute leadership
8) Banish fear
9) Break down barriers between staff areas
10) Remove slogans, exhortations, and production goals for the force labor
11) you eliminate numerical quotas
12) Break down barriers that prevent the feeling of pride that produces a job well done
13) Establish a vigorous education and training program
14) Take steps to achieve transformation
These 14 points were and continue to be of great help to administrators, other of his contributions are: the implementation of the application of different statistical methods for science, conducted successful censuses, invited him to apply different statistical methodologies in the elections of some countries. He left an imperious legacy due to his contributions to the economy in predicting the Japanese miracle.
Peter F. Drucker, (1909 - 2005)
He is considered the greatest philosopher in management. Your various contributions have been of great help both in the past and today. Drucker was the first person to implement the ability to obtain quality and fluid information, all within a company, its departments, workers, customers and employees. Thanks to this, productivity was improved and not only that, but there was also a reduction in expenses and an adaptation to the needs of buyers.
But we also have all of his books, each of his writings have been used as the basis for modern corporate momentum. Among his most famous works are: Management, Innovation and the Innovative Entrepreneur, the Corporate Concept and the Effective Executive.
Kaoru Ishikawa, (1915 - 1989)
Ishikawa came from a family very dedicated to the industry. Throughout his life he received the best education possible. At the time of finishing his career he entered the world of industry, and later to military life. Years later, he helped to promote quality control in different industries, from there he began his work as a consultant in large companies.
The main contributions of this guru are:
Quality circles, refers to this as a technique or practice used in the management of different organizations, in which a working group joins to find solutions to problems found in the respective areas of labor development or to improve some other aspect.
The importance of quality tools, which are presented in the following table:
o Control sheets
o Histograms
o Pareto
analysis o Cause and effect analysis o Diagram of
Ishikawa
o Scatter diagrams
o Control charts
o Stratification analysis
The Ishikawa spine or the cause-effect diagram, this diagram is very useful to find the cause or why of a problem. This graphical method shows the relationship between quality and the factors that help it exist.
The administration today and its gurus:
Today, we can say that the administration has undergone some changes, I would like to say that most of these are positive. Despite the time we continue to use the knowledge that has been created by famous people years ago.
Michael E. Porter, (1947 -)
Porter's main contribution was his article "How competitive forces shape strategy", which was published in 1979, in which he spoke about the model of the five competitive forces, created by him, this scheme tells us that the attractiveness An industrial sector lies not only in direct competitors, but also in substitutes, potential competitors and in the entry and exit game.
The five competitive forces are as follows:
1) Potential competitors
2) Rivalry between competitors
3) Substitute producers
4) Bargaining power of customers
5) Bargaining power of suppliers
Conclusion.
As we could see, throughout this article, for decades the importance of administration became eminent, not only personally (to manage our assets or our time, for example), but also in terms of work, since If we want our company to rise to the top, we have to understand the value of management.
Likewise, we learned from ancient gurus, coming from past decades, they became wise and helped us discover many things, which today we continue to apply and helped us achieve and understand endless things. But like everything in this life, everything changes, knowledge, rules and / or norms, but this did not prevent different people from earning the name or title of "guru", who with their books, statements, discoveries and passion Great things have been discovered by the administration, and I am confident that these will continue with us throughout the years.
As Kaoru Ishikawa said, "No company can be better or worse than the people who make it up" and it is true, we must achieve a balance, give our best to obtain the best, but for this we need perseverance, responsibility and passion for what we do or want to develop.
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