Implementing the Gantt chart in Europe and Britain: the contributions of Wallace Clark

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to trace the European and British activities of Wallace Clark and his consulting firm with public sector agencies and private firms implement Henry L. Gantt’s chart concept. Design/methodology/approach Archival records and secondary sources in English and French. Findings Developed to meet the shipbuilding and use needs for the Great War (World War I), the Gantt chart was disseminated through the work of Wallace Clark during the 1930s in numerous public sector and private organizations in 12 nations. The Gantt concept was applied in a variety of industries and firms using batch, continuous processing and/or sub-assembly lines in mass production. Traditional scientific management techniques were expanded for general management, such as financial requirement through budgetary control. Clark and his consulting firm were responsible for implementing a managerial tool, the Gantt chart, in an international setting. Research limitations/implications Some firms with which Clark consulted could not be identified because the original records of the Wallace Clark Company were disposed of by New York University archival authorities. Industries were identified from the writings of Pearl Clark and Wallace Clark, and some private or public organizations were discerned from archival work and the research of French and British scholars. Originality/value This is the first study of the diffusion of a managerial tool, developed in America by Henry L. Gantt, into Europe and Britain through the contributions of Wallace Clark.

Incentivization: From the current proliferation to the (re)problematization of incentives

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The past masters: the impact of the Evolution of Management Thought on history

“…Before Wren’s White-Collar Hobo, Williams had been a forgotten figure, a quick reference (and nothing more) in industrial sociology textbooks in the 1950s. Wren (2021, personal communication, 11 August) reminisced of his work on Williams: “we went to his home and made two visits out there to where he had lived in Cleveland and met his widow and went through his archives and saw his handwriting and manuscripts that he’d done.” Wren’s (Wren et al , 2002; Wren, 1995, 2001, 2011, 2015) work on Henry Gantt and Henri Fayol, and the spread of Taylorism, also deserves special recognition. For many years, Wren was the curator of the Bass Business History Collection [4] at the University of Oklahoma’s Bizzell Memorial Library.…”