Publisher's Synopsis
First published in 1945, Brech and Urwick's book was the first to present a clear and focused d'scussion of the development and applications of management science. It includes a comprehensive number of profiles of leading propoilents of management theory, from early pioneers such as Charles Babbage and Frederick Winslow Taylor, to those such as Seebohm Rowntree and Mary Parker Follett who innovated and refined their concepts. All aimed to bring "'adequate Intelligence" to the control of the forces released by a mechanised economy' (p. 9), to bring the logical standards of science to bear on business practice.;The second volume, Management in British Industry, deals with early contributions to understanding the scientific approach to control in industry. Urwick and Brech begin from the standpoint that F. W. Taylor, rather than inventing the ideas and concepts of scientific management, was in fact merely coherently and logically presentliig evidence of practices that had been in existence in some factories for quite some tinie. This long background of scientific management practices had previously been largely unknown. Their second volume therefore aims to 'paint a vein into the body of British economic history' by enlighteniTIg the reader about this lost period, concentrating on the opening and the close of the niiieteciitli ccntul y. Their study includes a view of methods of control at the famous Boulton and Watt Foundry, of Robert Owen's approach to personnel management, and of commercial management training. The two volumes include photographs of the figures profiled, illustrations, and diagrams of plans of organization and control.
