THE COURSES: A variety of corporate adventures

History of Management Thought

COURSE SUMMARY and STORYLINE: With the potential for explosive growth or failure on the company horizon, Central’s CEO, Robert Powers is looking for wisdom. In this course, he will ask you and your training partner, Ken Zylstra, to go on a quest to uncover Central’s past. You will be assigned a series of interviews with former employees to unearth secrets about the family business. From their wisdom and experience you will learn about such things as, the ancient Art of War to today's Six Sigma, from Scientific Management to the Balanced Scorecard and Sustainability. You may even build some friendships along the way! Designed to make you re-think your own process, you will confront your own ability to plan, organize, control and lead.

(This course provides an overview of major schools or perspectives of management theory. The focus is upon the disciplinary foundations of management theory as well as the impact of historical context upon the development of management theory. The course also focuses upon the rise of the concept of management as a distinct profession. This course has 6 modules.)