Alfred D. Chandler, Jr.: Management

Alfred D. Chandler, Jr. was American historian. Explore interesting quotes on management.
Alfred D. Chandler, Jr.: 28 quotes0 likes

“Effective coordination of throughput required the placing of vigorous management controls over these despots.”

Alfred D. Chandler, Jr.

Source: The Visible Hand (1977), p. 266; Cited in: Best (1990, p. 56).

“The swift victory of the railway over the waterway resulted from organizational as well as technological innovation. Technology made possible fast, all-weather transportation; but safe, regular, reliable movement of goods and passengers, as well as the continuing maintenance and repair of locomotives, rolling stock, and track, roadbed, stations, roundhouses and other equipment, required the creation of a sizable administrative organization. It meant the employment of an administrative command of middle and top executives to monitor, evaluate, and coordinate the work of managers responsible for the day-to-day operations. It meant, too, the formulation of brand new types of internal administrative procedures and accounting and statistical controls. Hence, the operational requirements of the railroads demanded the creation of the first administrative hierarchies in American business.”

Alfred D. Chandler, Jr.

Source: The Visible Hand (1977), p. 87.

“The market remained the generator of demand for goods and services, but modern business enterprise took over the functions of coordinating flows of goods and services through existing processes of production and distribution, and of allocating funds and personnel for future production and distribution. As modern business enterprise acquired functions hitherto carried out by the market, it became the most powerful institution in the American economy and its managers the most influential group of economic decision makers. The rise of modern business enterprise in the United States, therefore, brought with it managerial capitalism.”

Alfred D. Chandler, Jr.

Source: The Visible Hand (1977), p. 1.

“To maintain and continue a high volume of flow demanded organizational innovation. It would be achieved only by creating an administrative hierarchy operated by many full-time salaried managers.”

Alfred D. Chandler, Jr.

Source: The Visible Hand (1977), p. 236; Cited in: Best (1990, p. 48).

“In most British enterprises senior executives worked closely in the same office building, located in or near the largest plant, having almost daily personal contact with, and thus directly supervising middle and often lower-level managers. Such enterprises had no need for the detailed organization charts and manuals that had come into common use in large American and German firms before 1914. In these British companies, selection to senior positions and to the board depended as much on personal ties as on managerial competence. The founders and their heirs continued to have a significant influence on top-level decision-making even after their holdings in the enterprise were diminished.”

Alfred D. Chandler, Jr.

Source: The Visible Hand (1977), p. 242.

“Modern factory management (but not it must be stressed the management of large modern multi-unit enterprises) had the genesis in the United States in the Springfield Armory.”

Alfred D. Chandler, Jr.

Source: The Visible Hand (1977), p. 75; Cited in: Best (1990, p. 32).