From the Industrial Revolution to classical management thought: an evaluation by Sir Richard Arkwright

Abstract

The management, which is as old as the history of humanity, has undergone a change along with important events in almost every period of history. However, although it is easier to reach historical evidence with important events such as the invention of writing, the absence/insufficiency of previous evidence makes it difficult to establish a starting point for management. With the Industrial Revolution, which is one of the most important social developments in the history of humanity, the traditional living conditions have changed radically and humans had to lead a life in accordance with the newly developing technology. In this context, technological innovations have changed the traditional way of doing business and some of the employees who are afraid of losing their jobs have encountered resistance up to the newly developed devices. In this period, the invention “Water Frame”, developed by Sir Richard Arkwright, broke new ground in the textile and weaving industry and formed the starting point of mechanization and factory tradition. Within the scope of the study, the changing management perception with the Industrial Revolution was discussed and the contributions of the Industrial Revolution and Sir Richard Arkwright to the management thought, which has changed and developed until today, have been tried to be explained. In the final analysis, it has been discussed whether the aforementioned period and the person contributed to the ontological origin of the management thought. According to the findings, although there are parallels between Sir Richard Arkwright’s activities and classical management thought, the tendency of classical management thought to put the human element in the background was not seen in Sir Richard Arkwright’s activities, but in terms of production and efficiency, classical management thought was more in line with periodic technological possibilities it can be said to be successful.