HISTORY OF MANAGEMENT

In line with the objectives of the three-year Bachelor’s degree program in Business Administration, this course aims to provide knowledge and understanding of the historical evolution of management—understood as the history of practices rather than the history of thought—and to examine the conditions under which the latter emerged within a context that is itself historically situated. The course will include several significant references to the Venice area.

Knowledge and understanding
Knowledge and understanding of the historical evolution of management in its many meanings.

Ability to apply knowledge
Ability to identify the constituent elements of management in the long term, beyond the presentism and fads that can be observed today.
Ability to interpret historical cases as an element of problematization of management theories.
Ability to understand the historical determinants of the development of managerial knowledge.
Ability to critically historicize management practices and theories.

Judgment
Ability to judge the conditions and intrinsic limitations of management in different historical contexts, in the face of non-superficial historicizations.

Communication skills
Ability to present research publicly.
Ability to discuss historical problems using knowledge of historically contextualized management practices and theories.
Ability to discuss the validity of empirical interpretations from a historical-critical perspective.

Learning skills
Ability to critically evaluate the soundness and rigor of a text or discourse on management from a historical perspective.

Knowledge of general History at high-school le tl.

In the absence of a strong historical awareness that characterizes management studies, five perspectives represent the defining element of the approach adopted:

1. The history of management as the history of managerial practices, with particular attention to the early stages, to early examples of the affirmation of the discourse of ‘management’ (precisely in Venice, at the Arsenale, around 1580), and with particular attention to proto-industrial contexts that tend to falsify many of the dominant views on management (in China around 1552, in Spain at the Royal Tobacco Company around 1777).

2. History of management as managerial practices, with reference to some of the major transformations of large American corporations following the Industrial Revolution, with particular focus on the evolution of management (railroads, the meat industry, steel, up to the cases of Ford and GM). Special attention will be given to “non-industrial” contexts, such as Murano glass.

3. The history of management as a history of thought, and specifically a history of fragmentary and local thought, with the existence of different separate traditions: both in a national sense (e.g., the tradition of business economics vs. the American tradition of business & management studies) and in a disciplinary sense (e.g., accounting studies vs. marketing studies vs organizational studies).

4. A methodological and sociological reflection on academia that takes into account this situation of fragmented studies and low historical awareness of its own evolution, in the context of the affirmation of the American business school model.

5. A reflection on some research methodologies in the field of management history.

Details about the individual course modules and their corresponding readings are available on Moodle (course syllabus).

There are no management history texts that are both comprehensive and accessible to undergraduate students. We have therefore selected the following articles and chapters, which are available on Moodle.

Compulsory readings
Part 1:
• Witzel M., 2021, Why management history matters, Global Focus, Vol. 15 02
• Drachio B (1586), Ricordi intorno alla casa dell’arsenale
• Zan L., 2006, “Il ‘discorso del maneggio’”, in Zan L., Rossi F., Zambon S., Il Discorso del maneggio. Pratiche gestionali e contabili all’Arsenale di Venezia, 1580-1643, Il Mulino
• Williams & Deal, 2025, “Prospecting origin stories: the intellectual roots of management education prefacing origin stories”, Journal of Management History, 2025, n3, pp. 437
• Bondioli M., Zan L, 2026, “L’ultima riforma dell’officina delle meraviglie. Il Piano Meccanico, Economico, Materiale e Politico degli Inquisitori dell’Arsenale di Venezia (1782-1792)”, WP.
• Carmona, S., Ezzamel, M., and Gutierrez, F. (1997), “The Spanish Royal Tobacco Factory,” Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol. 22, No. 5, July: 411-446.
• Thomson, A. 2001. “The case for management history”. Accounting, Business & Financial History, 11(2): 99-115.

Part 2:
• McCallum, 1855, Superintendent report
• Wren, D. A. 2009 (6th edition). The evolution of management thought. New York, Wiley. Cap 5, cap 6 (p. 95-99): cap. 11; cap 12.
• Ford (H.), La mia vita e il mio lavoro, 2022 (ed orig 1922), pp. 67-77.
• Crawford R., Bailey M. (2019), “Cousins Once Removed? Revisiting the Relationship between Oral History and Business History”, Enterprise and Society, Volume 20 (1), pp. 4 – 18.

Part 3:
• Bonazzi, 1982, Dentro e fuori della fabbrica, pF. Angeli, p. 42-53; 72-75 e 84-92; 117-122 e 130-140; 142-165
• Zappa, Tendenze nuove negli studi di ragioneria, 1926
• Mintzberg, "Pianificazione e strategia", cap 1 da Ascesa e declino della pianificazione strategica, (ed orig 1994)

Part 4:
• Tourish D., 2019, "The Triumph of Nonsense in Management Studies", Academy of Management Learning & Education, 19 (1): 99-109

Part 5:
• Zan L., Ferri P., Baskakova E. (2025), “Bridging management, organizational, and accounting history with the industrial heritage debate”, Accounting History, Vol 30 (2), pp. 239-264.
• Cummings, Bridgman, Hassard & Rowlinson, 2017, A New History of Management, Cambridge University Press, Capitolo 1.

Written assignment with open-ended questions.
The questions aim to assess whether students have acquired the ability to a) place historical events in time; b) use a critical approach to management studies for their interpretation; c) identify the conditions that limit the tendency of management studies to be ahistorical.

Alternatively, students may check with the instructor about the possibility of writing a paper based on archival or field research.

written

The lecturer has a duty to ensure that the rules regarding the authenticity and originality of exam tests and papers are respected. Therefore, if there is suspicion of irregular conduct, an additional assessment may be conducted, which could differ from the original exam description.

With regard to grading (the method by which grades will be assigned), regardless of whether the student is attending or not attending:
A. Scores in the 18-22 range will be awarded in the presence of:
- sufficient knowledge and applied understanding of the program;
- limited ability to collect and/or interpret data, formulating independent judgments;
- sufficient communication skills, especially in relation to the use of specific language pertaining to management history;
B. Scores in the range 23-26 will be assigned in the presence of:
- fair knowledge and applied comprehension of the program;
- fair ability to collect and/or interpret data, formulating independent judgments;
- fair communication skills, especially in relation to the use of specific language pertaining to the history of management;
C. Scores in the range 27-30 will be assigned in the presence of:
- good or excellent knowledge and applied understanding of the program;
- good or excellent ability to collect and/or interpret data, formulating independent judgments;
- fully appropriate communication skills, especially in relation to the use of specific language pertaining to the history of management.
D. Honors will be awarded in the presence of excellent knowledge and applied understanding of the program, judgment, 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