Ten Years’ Progress in Management, 1960–1970: Foreword

FROM its inception in 1912, periodic reports of progress in management have been presented under the auspices of The American Society of Mechanical Engineers. These reports combine: (1) the best ideas practiced in the real world of application with (2) the theories offered by educational institutions and professional societies and other organizations. Eleven years ago the ASME Management Division Executive Committee decided to issue the ten-year management progress report of the Fifties. This report had as coeditors Professor O. J. Sizelove and Mr. Marshall Anderson. Included with the management progress papers of the Fifties were reprints of all the previous accounts of management progress which began with the first report, "The Present State of the Art of Industrial Management," presented in 1912 by the late Dr. Leon P. Alford. The results of these efforts was a splendid compilation of management progress covering fifty years which serves as a permanent record of the Golden Jubilee of Progress in Industrial Management. This "Ten Years' Progress in Management, 1960-1970" report is concerned with interpretations of progress in the Sixties. Many of the authors of the papers covering progress in the Fifties reflected upon the initial ideas of pio_neers in management thought, discussed significant contributions during the decade of the Fifties, and projected the future trend of management practices. The most notable author was Dr. Lillian M. Gilbreth, that grand lady of industrial engineering and management who has devoted her life to promotion of the best thought in management and emphasis upon the human factors in the application of management principles and practice. Her lectures, her writings, and her counsel have been a stimulating and stabilizing influence continuously since the inception of these progress reports. Not featured in the ASME management progress reports but recognized as pioneers in management in this country were Frederick W. Taylor, known as the "father of scientific management," and Dean Dexter S. Kimball, whose Principles of Industrial Organization, published in 1913, was the first collegelevel text in management. Other interpreters of thought and practitioners in management who presented papers at these progress meetings included Mr. Harold B. Maynard, Mr. Phil Carroll, Professor Alex W. Rathe, and Mr. Clarence E. Davies. This 1970 decade of management progress report is fortunate to include three authors of papers for the 1960 progress report to provide continuity and interesting contrasts in management progress. Particularly noteworthy is Dr. Peter F . Drucker, Distinguished Professor of Management at New York University who will deliver the Henry R. Towne Lecture during the ASME 1970 Winter Annual Meeting. The second such author is Lt. Col. Lyndall F. Urwick, who wrote an interesting analysis of management progress in the Fifties. The third author of the Fifties who contributes also to this progress report is Mr. Harold F. Smiddy. The remaining authors are new to these progress reports. They provide refreshing thought on principles, practice, and education in management in the Sixties together with observations on the future impact of these ideas. There are similarities in management progress in both decades. Both were affected by pressure for production and innovation brought on by the undeclared war in Korea and the similar situation later in Vietnam. In the presentations of the Fifties there was emphasis upon growing recognition of management as a profession, continuing pressure for increased productivity, concern for effects of foreign competition, international exchange of management thought, and national and international economic problems which affect management practices. Management practices in the Sixties were influenced by the improvement, refinement, and enlargement of the tools and techniques introduced in the Fifties, some of which were an outgrowth of World War I I developments. New terms have been introduced, and an overview of the impact of each development has been increasingly emphasized both in education for and practice in management and engineering. The computer revolution has produced an information explosion; keen interest in the field of operations research has been created; the terms systems design, decision making, and simulation by mathematical and other models have become commonplace; and integration of the life sciences and the behavioral sciences with the traditional features of management science has received paramount attention. Social, political, and legal concerns at the close of the decade have placed a challenge before the managers and administrators of all enterprises, both profit and nonprofit motivated. Students and recent graduates of educational institutions have questioned all traditions. There is current concern over corporate or management responsibility for product quality, re-