History of organizations facts for kids

The history of organizations looks at how groups of people have worked together over time to achieve goals. From ancient times to today, humans have always tried to find the best ways to organize themselves. These ways often show the values and traditions of society at that time. Organizations help people face challenges, create new things, and make the most of what they have.

Early Ways of Organizing

Since the very beginning, people have worked to create the best ways to organize groups. These systems usually reflected the values and traditions of their society. They also helped people deal with threats and make new things, while using resources wisely. The word "strategic" comes from ancient Greek words meaning 'army' or 'leader'. In ancient Greece, a 'Strategikos' was the army leader. This shows how important good leadership and structure have always been for success.

The Industrial Revolutions

In 1776, a thinker named Adam Smith wrote about how people could produce much more by specializing. This means focusing on one task or skill. This idea became very clear during the Industrial Revolution in the late 1700s. This period completely changed how people worked and how work was set up.

Before the Industrial Revolution, many people worked at home. They used special skills they had learned over a long time. But with new factories, this changed. Work moved from homes to large factory buildings. Many people moved from farms to cities to find factory jobs. This led to big cities growing quickly. Work became more focused on time and exact tasks. It was a more standardized way of working.

During this time, large companies started to grow, especially in places like London and Paris. Trade expanded around the world. Later, in the late 1800s, a "Second Industrial Revolution" happened. Work became even more organized and specialized. Factories were redesigned so workers fit into the production line. This meant workers lost some of their freedom and became more like parts of a machine.

Fordism

Fordism is a way of making things, named after Henry Ford. It's about mass production: making huge amounts of the same product using special machines and workers who don't need many skills. The main benefit was that it needed fewer workers and cut down on production costs.

In this system, engineers designed factories so employees would fit into the production line. Workers became as interchangeable as the parts they made.

Before Fordism in the United States, there was something similar in Europe called Taylorism. Frederick Winslow Taylor wanted to make work more efficient, especially how much workers produced. He studied how specific jobs could be done better. He broke down tasks into small steps that could be measured. Many people see Taylor as the first person to truly study work and try to improve it.

Post-Fordism

Today, the old Fordism production methods are not the main way things are made. A new approach called 'Post-Fordism' has emerged. It's driven by new technologies, global trade, and a shift away from Fordism.

Post-Fordism focuses on flexible production. This means companies can change what they make more easily. It also involves workers with many different skills and higher incomes for them. Profits come from new technologies and ideas. Post-Fordism is more about what customers want (demand-driven) than just making a lot of products (supply-driven). It uses flexible systems and a flexible workforce.

Modern Times

The late 1800s and early 1900s brought huge changes in industry, technology, and ideas. This period, called "modernity," completely changed how people saw time and space. Many technologies we use today, like railroads and cars, came from breakthroughs during this time.

Railroads, and later cars, changed how human activities were organized, from war to business. The speed of travel even led to local time zones being replaced by standard "railway times." The American Civil War is seen as the first modern war. Moving soldiers and supplies by train showed how logistics could change warfare.

World War II's Impact

World War II was a major turning point for how organizations and leadership developed. The war led to amazing technological advances, like radar, computers, and jet engines. It also brought new ideas for leadership, especially in communication and efficiency.

After the war, many business leaders used their military training from WWII as a model for how to run companies.

After the War: Management Development

Frederick Winslow Taylor's book in 1911 helped make management a scientific subject. However, some experts like Charles Handy and Henry Mintzberg noted that there wasn't much leadership training right after WWII. It took some time for executive education to become a serious field. This eventually led to the rise of "management gurus" and new theories about how to run organizations.

Modern Forces Shaping Organizations

Today, organizations continue to change. The world is very connected, and countries often work together. Technology is always advancing, bringing new challenges and opportunities. There's also a growing awareness of global environmental threats and limited resources. All these things make organizations think about their purpose and how they operate.

New Ways of Organizing Today

A great example of modern organization is the 2008 Presidential Campaign of Barack Obama. His team used social media to create a very flat structure. This meant local volunteers could talk directly with campaign headquarters. People became leaders in their own areas. They could get campaign materials and sign up supporters online right away.

This new way of campaigning helped Obama raise a lot of money, mostly from small donations. It also brought in many volunteers. However, by the 2012 campaign, this 2008 strategy was already considered old-fashioned!

In the future, many predictable tasks will be done by artificial intelligence. This means old-fashioned command-and-control systems will become less useful. Success will depend on speed and new ideas. Organizations will need to use real-time information to quickly find new opportunities.

The 2012 Presidential election showed how this might look. The campaign still used social media and volunteers, but it was also driven by data. They collected a huge amount of information about voters. By understanding voters better through data, the campaign could create very specific messages for different groups of people.

The campaign itself was always changing, reacting to new information. This shift from strict, old-fashioned structures to systems that support new ideas and data-based decisions shows the future of organizations. As Steve Jobs once said, future organizations should be run by ideas, not by strict hierarchies.

See also

• Outline of organizational theory