Command-and-control management is categorised by systems thinkers as the dominant method of management in the Western world. Key influences are said to include Alfred P. Sloan,

Henry Ford Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, business magnate, founder of the Ford Motor Company, and chief developer of the assembly line technique of mass production. By creating the first automobile that ...

, James McKinsey of the eponymous accounting firm, and

Frederick Winslow Taylor Frederick Winslow Taylor (March 20, 1856 – March 21, 1915) was an American mechanical engineer. He was widely known for his methods to improve industrial efficiency. He was one of the first management consultants. In 1909, Taylor summed up ...

. A well-known modern exponent is Michael Barber, himself a partner in McKinsey & Company. It is characterised by some systems thinkers according to the following attributes: Perspective: Top-down and hierarchical
Design: Organisations divided into (ostensibly) independent functional silos. A practice propagated by Alfred Sloan and James McKinsey
Decision-making: Separated from work. A separation spearheaded by Frederick Winslow Taylor
Measures: Arbitrary targets analysed by binary comparison
Ethos: Control of staff
Change: Plans delivered by Prince II methodology
Motivation: Control-by-seduction (carrot) and control-by-fear (stick)
Attitude to suppliers and customers: Contractual. Key critics of the command-and-control management ethos and techniques include members of the systems-thinking community and associated thinkers, including

W. Edwards Deming William Edwards Deming (October 14, 1900 – December 20, 1993) was an American engineer, statistician, professor, author, lecturer, and management consultant. Educated initially as an electrical engineer and later specializing in mathematical ...

, John Seddon,

Kōnosuke Matsushita was a Japanese industrialist who founded Panasonic, the largest Japanese consumer electronics company. Matsushita is referred to as the "God of Management" in Japan. Childhood Kōnosuke Matsushita was born on 27 November 1894 in Wakayama Pre ...

Taiichi Ohno was a Japanese industrial engineer and businessman. He is considered to be the father of the Toyota Production System, which inspired Lean Manufacturing in the U.S. He devised the seven wastes (or muda in Japanese) as part of this system. He ...

Russell L. Ackoff Russell Lincoln Ackoff (February 12, 1919 – October 29, 2009) was an American organizational theorist, consultant, and Anheuser-Busch Professor Emeritus of Management Science at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. Ackoff was a pion ...

Donella Meadows Donella Hager "Dana" Meadows (March 13, 1941 – February 20, 2001) was an American environmental scientist, educator, and writer. She is best known as lead author of the books ''The Limits to Growth'' and '' Thinking In Systems: A Primer''. E ...

Alfie Kohn Alfie Kohn (born October 15, 1957) is an American author and lecturer in the areas of education, parenting, and human behavior. He is a proponent of progressive education and has offered critiques of many traditional aspects of parenting, mana ...

, and the outspoken Vanguard Method practitioner John Little.https://www.theguardian.com/housing-network/2011/oct/11/snouts-in-the-trough-outsourcing-farm. In the 21st century John Seddon in particular has been deeply critical of successive UK governments' propagation of command-and-control thinking in the

NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

, local authorities, and other public services. Organisations credited with having moved away from the command-and-control paradigm to a systems-thinking philosophy include

Harley Davidson Harley may refer to: People * Harley (given name) * Harley (surname) Places * Harley, Ontario, a township in Canada * Harley, Brant County, Ontario, Canada * Harley, Shropshire, England * Harley, South Yorkshire, England * Harley Street, in L ...

and Aviva, in addition to many Japanese companies, such as

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

Honda is a Japanese public multinational conglomerate manufacturer of automobiles, motorcycles, and power equipment, headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, reaching a producti ...

, and

Panasonic formerly between 1935 and 2008 and the first incarnation of between 2008 and 2022, is a major Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation, headquartered in Kadoma, Osaka. It was founded by Kōnosuke Matsushita in 1918 as a lightbulb ...

References

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See also

References