The Schools of Managerial Thought.

The "school of thought" concept, originally developed by Harold Koontz, is expanded in this paper. Also examined is management thought as acontinuum of knowledge, ranging from the highly quantitative specialty occupying the extreme left to the less quantitative and more behavioral specialty on the right. With such a concept, it is proposed that the mid-point of the continuum is an area where the theories of the extremes are synthesized or balanced. The historical development of management thought narrated by this paper is diagrammatically presented in a chart. Each of over one hundred major contributors is placed in a time and theoretical frame according to the date of his first major publication and the school of thought on which he has concentrated. The main value of such a chart is the clear and concise pinpointing of each theorist in relation to the other theorists. It enables, at a glance, the determination of each major management contributor's place in the development of managerial thought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]