Management has kept on redefining itself over the years. It has been on a continuously reinventing spree. There are not enough literatures available to throw light on evolution of management before 18th century. But it is assumed that, given the magnitude of earlier era’s construction and hugely spread kingdom, there must have been elements of planning, organizing and delegating authorities, all of which are essential elements of management. In fact, management from being a personalized solitary concept to the boardrooms of corporate houses has travelled long distance.
It all started with industrial revolution when businesses started growing in gargantuan proportions. Industrial revolution signaled the arrival of increased scale of operations, growing size and emergence of various elements within an organization. This also prompted recruitment of managers for day to day activities who can handle planning and controlling part on their own. With increasing global trade and requirements of efficient man power, management, which was merely an art of getting things done through people, started encompassing other aspects of business as well. Its functions were defined and new scientific aspects were added to management’s overall meaning. apart from existing factors like economies of scale, increased productivity and effective, efficient utilization of resources, technical aspects like quality control, cost accounting etc were also included in its broadening perspective. Later on eminent management thinkers like Henri Fayol, Elton Mayo, Chester Bernard, Peter Drucker added new elements of psychological and sociological approaches.
In the last century, the biggest contribution from management’s evolution point of view came from de facto humanization of management. From merely being a managing concept which was concerned with rationale side of mind, management started ingraining emotional intelligence as well. The concept of leadership gave itself a big push, working in collaboration with management. Human Resource which was just one of the production tools started being taken as the most important element of organization. More personalized relationships were started between the management and employees. In fact, with changing times, we can safely say that the evolution of management is still in process.
By: Jennie Gandhi
Posts Tagged ‘Cost Accounting’
How Management Evolved?
March 3rd, 2010Environmental "green" Accounting Primer
August 20th, 2009As we all know, businesses are formed to deliver services or produce products in order to earn a profit. In the 21st century accounting goes beyond the bottom line of black or red – – it includes “green”, too. With the growing green consumer awareness, companies are more than ever expected to align its business strategies with environmental initiatives. Environmentally conscious companies have already discovered that they can generate business strategies to help them reduce their carbon footprint, minimize their environmental impact, make the best use of natural resources, become more energy efficient, reduce costs, and exhibit social responsibility – all at the same time.
Companies who are ready to become an integral part of President Obama’s Green Economy through governmental initiatives will need to expand their accounting staff by hiring accountants who specialize in “green” or environmental accounting.
Definition of Green Accounting
The term, green accounting, has been around since the 1980s, and is known as a management tool used for a variety of purposes, such as improving environmental performance, controlling costs, investing in “cleaner” technologies, developing “greener” processes and products, and forming decisions related to their business activities.
Green Management Accounting
According to the EPA, green or environmental management accounting is “the identification, prioritization, quantification or qualification, and incorporation of environmental costs into business decisions.” Green Management Accounting uses “data about environmental costs and performance for business decisions. It collects cost, production, inventory, and waste cost and performance data in the accounting system to plan, evaluate, and control.”
Environmental management accounting thus represents a combined approach which provides for the transition of data from financial accounting and cost accounting to increase material efficiency, reduce environmental impact and risk, and reduce costs of environmental protection.
Green or Environmental Accountants
Green accountants are held responsible to identify and track green costs often times working with site, research and development, and production managers when planning their budgets. In the past, such costs were buried in overhead preventing a clear picture of the cost savings and benefits to the product, process, system or facility responsible for the green initiatives.
Green accountants help management recognize that the tax benefits, rebates and lower costs of being environmentally friendly add up to a real bottom-line reward for doing the right thing.
“Public environmental, social and sustainability reporting is the main route through which corporate accountability and integrity can be demonstrated,” claims the London-based Association of Chartered Certified Accountants in its report, Environmental, Social and Sustainability Reporting on the World Wide Web.
By: James Hamilton
