HISTORY OF MANAGEMENT

Consistently with the objectives of the degree program in Business Administration, the course aims at providing knowledge and understanding of the historical evolution of 1) the evolution of business Organisational forms from the preindustrial times to the present; 2) of the main debates in management theory..
The course will allow students to develop a critical approach to the study of management theories through the interpretation of historical cases, evaluating the adaptability of theories to context.

Knowledge and understanding
Knowledge and understanding of the historical evolution of the forms of business organisation and of managerial debates .
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Ability to apply knowledge and understanding
Ability to interpret historical business cases using managerial theories.
Ability to understand the historical determinants of the development of managerial theories.
Critical ability to apply managerial theories in a business environment in relationship with the contextual conditions of theoretical elaborations.

Judgement ability
Ability to judge the scope limiting conditions of the application of managerial theories to different historical contexts.

Communication ability
Ability to publicly present a research.
Ability to discuss historical problems using managerial categories.
Ability to question the universal validity of theoretical categories using historical cases.

Learning ability
Ability to critically assess the validity and rigour of historical and scientific text.

Knowledge of general History at high-school le tl.

1 - Introduction: The History of Management between Theory and Practice.
2 - Business and Accounting in Pre-Modern Times.
3 - The Mercantilistic Origins of the Corporation.
4 - The Industrial Revolution.
5 - Cost Accounting during the Industrial Revolution.
6 - An Economic Theory of the Firm.
7 - The Managerial Revolution: Mass Production and Distribution.
8 - From Partnerships to Corporations.
9 - Primary and Secondary Organisations.
10 - The End of Entrepreneurial Capitalism.
11 - The Multi-Divisional Business and the Revival of Capitalism.
12 - The evolution of corporate governance in a big business with foreign capital.
13 - The Historical Origins of a Recent Change in Managerial Theories.
14 - The Network Firm as a New Organizational Form.
15 - The evolution of a network business and the relationship among risk, profit and development.

- W.H. Becker, “Finance, technology and governance: the recent ‘revolution’ in American corporate management”, working paper, 6th EBHA Conference, Helsinki, 2002. (14)
- B.G. Carruthers, W.N. Espeland, “Accounting for Rationality: Double-Entry Bookkeeping and the Rhetoric of Economic Rationality”, American Journal of Sociology, 97 (1991), 1, pp. 31-69. (2)
- A.D. Chandler, “Decision making and modern institutional change”, Journal of Economic History, 33 (1973), 1, pp. 1-15. (10)
- A.D. Chandler, “The development of large-scale economic organizations in Modern America”, Journal of Economic History, 30 (1970), 1, pp. 201-217. (7)
- R. Coase, La natura dell'impesa, in Idem, Impresa, mercato e diritto, Bologna: Il Mulino 2006, cap. 2. (6)
- R.B. Ekelund, R.D. Tollison, “The mercantilist origins of the corporation”, Bell Journal of Economics, 11 (1980), 2, pp. 715-720. (3)

- R.K. Fleischman, T.N. Tyson, “Cost accounting during the Industrial Revolution: the present state of historical knowledge”, Economic History Review, 46 (1993), 3, pp. 503-517. (5)
- N.M. Lamoreaux, “Partnership, corporations, and the theory of the firm”, American Economic Review, 88 (1998), 2, pp. 66-71. (9)
- R. Langlois, “Schumpeter and the Obsolescence of the Entrepreneur”, University of Connecticut, Department of Economics, working paper 19/2002. (12)
- W.W. Powell, “Neither market nor hierarchy: network forms of organization”, Research in Organizational Behavior, 12 (1990), pp. 295-336. (15)
- O.E. Williamson, “The modern corporation: origins, evolution, attributes”, Journal of Economic Literature, 19 (1981), 4, pp. 1537-1568. (13)

Written test with three open questions.
The questions will aim at verifying that students have acquired the ability to a) locate historical events in time; b) apply managerial models to their interpretation; c) identify the limiting scope conditions of managerial theories in different historical contexts.

written

As for the grade definition (how grades will be assigned), regardless of the attending or non-attending modality
A. Scores in the 18-22 range will be awarded in case of:
- sufficient knowledge and understanding applied to the programme,
- limited ability to collect and/or interpret data, making autonomous judgments;
- sufficient communication skills, especially in relation to the use of specific language pertaining to economic history.
B. Scores in the 23-26 range will be awarded in the presence of:
- discrete knowledge and applied understanding of the programme;
- discrete ability to collect and/or interpret data, making autonomous judgments;
- discrete communication skills, especially in relation to the use of specific language relating to economic history;
C. scores in the 27-30 range will be awarded in the presence of:
- good or excellent knowledge and understanding of the programme;
- good or excellent ability to collect and/or interpret data, making autonomous judgments;
- fully appropriate communication skills, especially in relation to the use of specific language relevant to economic history.
D. Honours will be awarded in the presence of excellent knowledge and understanding applied in relation to the program, judgment skills and communication skills.

Frontal lectures with visual support (slideshow) and class discussion.

Both attending and non-attending students are required to study on all the readings and on the handouts (slides) of the lessons, which will be made available online, using the readings as reference.

This subject deals with topics related to the macro-area "Circular economy, innovation, work" and contributes to the achievement of one or more goals of U. N. Agenda for Sustainable Development