OB-OD Brief History

  • 1776 Adam Smith
  • 1820's - Railroad
  • 1900's Assembly Lines (Ford)
  • 1930's Human Relations Mayo Follett; Barnard.
  • 1940's - Deming
  • 1950's Hawthorne Legacy
  • 1960's McGregor (X&Y)
  • 1980's –Total Quality Management
  • 1980's Six Sigma
  • 1990's Reeingineering
  • 2000 Lean Six Sigma

The Fact is that over 70% of these efforts FAIL to improve performance or stakeholder value!

Organizational Behavior as a specific field has only been around for roughly 40 years.  The foundation of modern business is built upon Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations (1776) which is online for free to read.  As we moved out the agrarian, craftsman and feudal society structures there's a major move in the railroad industry as their built across the country in division of labor.

Back to '1.1: Organizational Behavior'