A History of Management Thought

'Witzel has done it again: enlivening every-day management with the almost tangible presence of thinkers from the past; suddenly we know ourselves to be companions of managers, philosophers and problem-solvers of all times and places. His acute analysis shows why we intuitively recoil from some, or feel a bond with others; His care for what it is to be a human being trying to organise and get things done is the red thread that spans the centuries. Big thinking on a human scale at its best.' - Jonathan Gosling, Professor Emeritus, University of Exeter, UK

'This history illuminates. Witzel's wonderfully-stuffed sourcebook shows business has always been about people and profit, unchanged in millennia. But old principles must suit new times. Business's scale is now unprecedented. It is also increasingly separated from public purpose, its technologies and financialization problematic. The reader will learn a lot about the core challenge: harnessing peoples' imagination and skill in the pursuit of profit.' - J.-C. Spender, Research Professor, Kozminski University, Poland