Arthur G. Bedeian Quotes (1946-)

“The Management of Innovation (1961) [is]... the first major attempt to deal with the nature of organization-environment relations and identify the types of organizational structure and managerial practices that are appropriate for different environmental condition. Introduced the mechanistic-organic polarity (never a dichotomy) to the management lexicon.”

“Organizations in Action (1964) [was] a masterpiece on the behavior of organizations, incorporating an open-systems perspective to explain the influence of technology on the matter in which work systems are structured for task accomplishment.”

“The early nineteen-fifties saw the first widespread emergence of business dictionaries in the United States. The first management vocabulary, however, was not published until the year 1958. It was entitled, Common Vocabulary of Professional Management (COMVOC), and was prepared the direction of Louis A. Allen, President of Louis A. Allen Associates, Incorporated. Through the three editions (1958, 1963, 1968) of COMVOC, its coverage has expanded from 49 to 149 basic management terms. Its adopters include numerous companies throughout the world, the majority of which have been clients of Allen Associates. Earlier editions of COMVOC are reproduced in two of Allen's earlier publications, Management and organization and The Management Profession. Using COMVOC, the reader will quickly note that it follows a functional approach to management. Planning, organizing, leading and controlling are listed as the four functions of management...”

“Improvements in the prevailing methods of work and organization during this era were principally initiated by men actively engaged in industrial enterprises. The person most often referred to as the first to propose a rational and systematic science of management (and hence organization) was Henry R. Towne (1844-1924), president of the Yale and Towne Manufacturing Company, who in 1886 presented a paper titled "The Engineer as Economist." His comments, delivered at a meeting of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME), stressed the importance of management as a field of independent study, equal to that of engineering. Noting the almost complete lack of management literature, the virtual absence of a medium for the exchange of administrative ideas and experience, and the total absence of management associations, Towne urged that ASME serve as a center for the development and study of industrial management. Such a suggestion was considered nothing less than revolutionary.”