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Alexander Hamilton Church and the Development of Modern Management*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2012

Joseph A. Litterer
Joseph A. Litterer
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor of Management atUniversity of Illinois
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Abstract

A perception of the importance of measuring overhead costs led Church to analyze the totality of management. Among the first to formulate a comprehensive theory, he studied management in historical depth and defined it as a distinct function with identifiable components that could be manipulated in the interest of greater efficiency.

Type
Research Article
Information
Business History Review , Volume 35 , Issue 2 , Summer 1961 , pp. 211 - 225
Copyright
Copyright © The President and Fellows of Harvard College 1961

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References

1 London, Newman Neame Ltd., 1956.

2 Church, Alexander Hamilton, “The Meaning of Commercial Organization,” Engineering Magazine, vol. 20 (1900), p. 391Google Scholar.

3 Ibid., pp. 392–393.

4 Ibid., p. 395.

5 Ibid., p. 393.

6 Ibid., p. 396.

7 Church, , The Science and Practice of Management (New York: Engineering Magazine Company, 1914), p. 1Google Scholar.

8 The person who came closest to Church's viewpoint was J. Slater Lewis. The closeness is not surprising since the two worked together for a number of years with Lewis functioning in many ways as Church's tutor. Church gives full and frequent credit to Lewis in his writings.

9 This work is reported in a series of articles appearing under the general title, “The Proper Distribution of Establishment Charges,” Engineering Magazine, vols. 21, 22 (1901)Google Scholar, and later developed further in the book, Production Factors (New York: Engineering Magazine Co., 1910)Google Scholar.

10 Church, A. Hamilton, “Practical Principles of Rational Management,” Engineering Magazine, vol. 44 (1912), pp. 487–494Google Scholar, 673–680, 894–903, and vol. 45 (1913), pp. 24–33, 166–173, 405–411.

11 Ibid., p. 487 (italics in original).

12 Ibid., pp. 487–488.

13 Church, The Science and Practice of Management, pp. 37–38 (italics in original).

14 Ibid., p. 38.

15 Ibid., p. 71.

16 Ibid., p. 74.

17 Ibid., pp. 72–73.

18 Ibid., pp. 77–78.

19 Church, , “Principles of Rational Management,” Engineering Magazine, vol. 44, p. 895Google Scholar.

20 Ibid.

21 Ibid., pp. 894–895.

22 Ibid., p. 894.

23 Ibid., p. 895.

24 Drury, Horace Bookwalter, Scientific Management (New York: Columbia University, 1915), pp. 18–21Google Scholar.

25 Church, , “The Meaning of Scientific Management,” Engineering Magazine, vol. 41 (1911), p. 97Google Scholar.

26 Church, , “The Scientific Basis of Manufacturing Management,” Journal of the Efficiency Society, 1913–1914, vol. 3 (Feb., 1914), p. 8Google Scholar.

27 Ibid., pp. 8–9.

28 Church, , “The Meaning of Scientific Management,” Engineering Magazine, vol. 41 (1911), p. 98Google Scholar.

29 Ibid., pp. 99–100.

30 Ibid., p. 98.

31 Ibid., p. 99.

32 Church, , “Practical Principles of Rational Management,” Engineering Magazine, vol. 45, p. 674Google Scholar.

33 Ibid., p. 675.

34 Ibid.

35 Church, , “Has ‘Scientific Management’ Science,” American Machinest, vol. 35 (1911), p. 108Google Scholar.

36 Church, , “The Scientific Basis of Manufacturing Management,’ Journal of Efficiency Society, vol. 3, p. 9Google Scholar.

37 See, for example, Goodwin, J. H., Goodwin's Improved Book-keeping (New York, 1889), paragraphs 192–197Google Scholar.

38 L. Urwick, “Management's Debt to Engineers,” The ASME Calvin Rice Lecture.

39 Urwick, L., The Golden Book of Management (London, 1956), p. 114Google Scholar.

40 Perhaps the closest to Church's broad approach to the study of management was Fayol whose book, Administration Industrielle et Générale-Prévoyance Organisation, Commandement, Coordinators, Controle, appeared in 1916.