If you have seen the movie School of Rock ( hopefully you have) one of the scenes in the classroom is when Dewey (Jack Black) hass diagrammed on the board the history of influences in Rock.Heck you can’t turn around without hearing where your favorite band drew their inspiration, which artist influenced another, the roots of the new hottest cuisine or even who inspired someone to greatness.
Why do we care about the past? Do we want to be in the know? Do we think it gives us and edge? Does it help us connect better to the present? We all might have our own reasons.
If you were in history class (or have you escaped that forever? ) you might hear.
· History repeats itself
· Learn from the past
Or if you had a more philosophical teacher maybe
· Knowledge of history frees us to be contemporary. ~Lynn White, Jr.
When we’re trying to solve a problem between our friends (great mediators that we are) were are likely to ask for some background information about what led up to the problem.
So why should the study of management be any different. Today’s Practice of Management has its roots in management theories of the past.
Think of the term bureaucracy. Was that model of management a reaction to and solution for problems of its time? How did it evolve today to the negative image of “faceless Washington Bureaucrats”. Did something go wrong? Did the concept fail to change with the times? Is today’s focus on personalization in conflict? Did it simply fail to evolve? Or is it still quite valid and just gets a undeserved bad rep to make headlines? Or an easy thing to blame when cry baby can’t get their pampered individual way?
Everyone loves the DMV right? Bureaucracy at its worst right? All the horror stories! Now I’ve never had a problem but then again I’ve never needed to ask for exception. And I do make appointments . And my daughter did take her diving test in Norco ‘s office ( no freeways to drive less traffic on the test route) . So is bureaucracy working or did we just beat the system. What if I needed an exception would I have felt the same way?
Looking at the past might give you an insight as to concepts and ideas you can modernize to be successful as a manger today. For me I’m always up for stealing an old idea and modifying it to make it work for me today rather than reinventing the wheel from scratch . What about you?
