Management origins

The early origins of

management

Business management I

Sumer

Sumer, located in what is today southern Iraq and the first
urban-based civilization, contained the genesis of
management. Sumer had a flourishing merchant culture
in which goods such as grains, livestock, perfumes, and
pottery were sold to customers. Rather than bartering,
the Sumerians used ancient clay coins to pay. The sizes
and shapes of coins represented different amounts of
currency and signaled the types of goods for which they
could be exchanged.3

Sumer

The introduction of writing made it possible for
merchants to keep track of various trades. And the
development of a basic form of coins allowed for
increased trade because a person wanting to obtain a
good or service no longer had to find another person
who wanted exactly the good or service he produced.
Coordinating the activities of those who provided goods
and those who wanted to purchase them often required
coordination, one of the main functions of a manager.

Open Ended

What contributions did the Sumerians make to management?

Babylon

The idea of written laws and commands comes from
the Babylonian king Hammurabi. The Code of
Hammurabi was a listing of 282 laws that regulated a
wide variety of behaviors, including business
dealings, personal behavior, interpersonal relations,
and punishments. Law 104 was one of the first
instances of accounting and of the need for formal
rules for managers and owners. The code also set
wages for doctors, bricklayers, stonemasons,
boatmen, herdsmen, and other labors.

Babylon

The code did not, however, include the concept of
incentive wages because it set wages at a fixed
amount. The idea of incentives would come from
another, much later, Babylonian king,
Nebuchadnezzar, who gave
incentives to cloth weavers for production.
Weavers were paid in food, and the more
cloth they produced,
the more food they were given.

Categorize

Options (4)

Nebuchadnezzar

Hammurabi

Code of Hammurabi

Babylon

Who did what?

Accounting and rules for managers

Incentive wages

Regulated business dealings

Influence in management

Egypt

The ancient Egyptians made great strides in the building
of the great pyramids. Although we are still uncertain
about exactly how the pyramids were constructed, we
have some idea that the process required a great
number and wide range of slave laborers to construct
them. Each laborer would have a different task. Some of
the laborers were stonecutters; others were required to
push and pull gigantic blocks of stone; still others were
required to grease the stones to reduce friction. In this
process, we see the management principals of division
of labor, coordination, and specialization.

Open Ended

You and your friends have a car wash. Explain how can division of labor, coordination, and specialization be applied in that example.

Egypt

These groups of workers were supervised by one individual.
In figuring out how best to handle the huge numbers of workers engaged in pyramid building, the ancient Egyptians also pioneered the concept of span of control, that is, the
number of workers that a manager controls directly.
Egyptians found the ideal number of workers per
supervisor to be ten. In addition, there were various
overseers, who had the responsibility to compel workers
to produce.

China

In Asia, the Chinese began to develop the idea of
bureaucracy. Bureaucracy has roots in the early
dynasties but only became fully developed during
the Han dynasty. The idea was to train scholars in
Confucian teachings and use those teachings to
make decisions. Unlike modern bureaucracies, this
system was not formal but relied upon the
discretion of the scholars themselves. Another
important development was the idea of
meritocracy because selection for and then
promotion within a bureaucracy was based on a
test of Confucian teaching.

Greece

The Greeks continued to develop the idea of
division of labor based on Plato’s recognition of
human diversity. The great Greek philosopher
Socrates stressed the development of
managerial skills such as creating an
atmosphere of information sharing and analysis.

Rome

The Romans’ contribution to management was
standardization. Because the Romans needed
to administer a vast empire, they needed
standardization of measures, weights, and
coins. Romans also saw the birth of the
corporation, in that many Roman companies
sold stocks to the public. Although neither
empire was commercially oriented, both
Greeks and the Romans undertook a wide
range of industrial projects, such as roads and
aqueducts, and established various guilds and
societies that encouraged trade.