Introduction

Abstract

Management always entails a certain vision of the human being, along with a view of the nature and purpose of the business firm and society. This is evident from the very beginnings of management studies. To mention only a few authors of the earliest days, we recall Frederick W. Taylor (1856–1915), who, without any philosophical digressions, assumed that persons are basically productive beings, with a capacity for movement and an interest in economic gains. By contrast, Mary Parker Follett (1868–1933) considered persons as beings in continual development and even pointed out that the “chief function of business” is “to give an opportunity for individual development through the better organization of human relationships.” (1940: 140). Chester I. Barnard (1886–1961) was another pioneer of management thought. In the first pages of his celebrated work, The Functions of the Executive, first published in 1938, he affirmed:

I have found it impossible to go far in the study of organizations or of the behavior of people in relation to them without being confronted with a few questions which can be simply stated: What is an individual? What do we mean by a person? To what extent do people have a power of choice or free will? (1968: 8)