The Oxford Handbook of Management Theorists

Concurrent with the increasing complexity of the field of management, the need to re-examine the foundations from which its theories have advanced has become ever more important and useful. The Oxford Handbook of Management Theorists examines and evaluates the contributions that seminal figures, past and present, have made to the theory of management by providing in-depth, up-to-date, and detailed scholarly analysis of their ideas and influence. Chapters by leading management and management history scholars explore the origins of each thinker or school of thought and their ideas, and discuss the significance and influence in a broader framework. The Handbook contextualises each theorist and their theories, analysing their actions, interactions, and re-actions to contemporary events and to each other. It is arranged in three parts: pioneers of management thinking from Frederick Taylor to Chester Barnard; post-war theorists, such as the Tavistock Institute and Edith Penrose; and the later phase of Business School theorists, including Alfred Chandler, Michael Porter, and Ikujiro Nonaka. This book will be essential reading for anyone interested in how and why management ideas have emerged, and the ways in which they are currently developing and will evolve in the future.

1 - Introduction
2 - Frederick Winslow Taylor
3 - Mind, Method, and Motion: Frank and Lillian Gilbreth
4 - Henri Fayol
5 - Mary Parker Follett
6 - George Elton Mayo
7 - Lyndall Urwick
8 - Chester Barnard and the Systems Approach to Nurturing Organizations
9 - The Tavistock Group
10 - Deeply Engaged, Intuitively Analytical, and Determinedly Applied: Tom Burns and Joan Woodward in Context but Not in Concert
11 - W. Edwards Deming
12 - The Life and Diverse Contributions of Dr J. M. Juran
13 - Edith Penrose's Contribution to Economic and Management Scholarship
14 - Peter F. Drucker (Peter Georg Ferdinand Drucker)
15 - Herbert Alexander Simon: Philosopher of the Organizational Life-World
16 - Alfred Chandler's Managerial Revolution: Developing and Utilizing Productive Resources
17 - The Aston Studies: A Journey towards a Science of Administration?
18 - James March, Richard Cyert, and the Evolving Field of Organizations
19 - Geert Hofstede
20 - John Paul Kotter
21 - Henry Mintzberg
22 - The Competitive Advantage of Michael Porter
23 - Ikujiro Nonaka
24 - Sumantra Ghoshal
25 - C. K. Prahalad

Morgen Witzel is a well-known writer and lecturer on management, and one of the world's leading management historians. He is the author of eighteen books on management history, which have been translated into nine languages, and an extensive number of articles, essays, and reviews for various publications. He is currently a Fellow of the Centre for Leadership Studies at the University of Exeter Business School. Malcolm Warner has published over fifty books on management, either as author or editor, a number of which have been translated, as well as many journal articles, essays, and reviews on the subject. He has been Editor-in-Chief of the International Encyclopedia of Business and Management, (IEBM): Vols.1-8 (London: Thomson Learning, 2nd edition, 2002) and is Co-Editor of the Asia Pacific Business Review. Currently, he is Professor and Fellow Emeritus at Wolfson College, Cambridge, and the Judge Business School, University of Cambridge.