Instead of each worker performing all the steps necessary to produce a product, several workers could be assigned “subsets” of the overall production process. Around 1900, Frederick W. Taylor incorporated Smith´s idea of specialization into a comprehensive set of management principles called scientific management. Taylor intended his views to reflect a philosophy of management. He wanted to encourage cooperation between managers and workers. Henri Fayol attributed his success to a system of management. When he retired in 1918, Fayol had turned a floundering mining company into a financial success. Fayol was the first person to identify the five components of managerial activity. These five functions still define the job of the manager: planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating, and controlling. Richard A. Cosier (1998) wrote in his publication, “To improve the functioning of these organizations, Max Weber proposed the ideal bureaucracy, which had five features : a well-defined hierarchy of authority, a comprehensive system of rules and procedures, a clear division of labour based on functional duties, impersonal employer-employee relationship, and promotions and selections based on technical competence.” (pp. 41-42). Besides the theories there are also the styles of management in the world´s history which exist up to this day.
American management is connected with the name Henry Ford and his “Fordism” and on the other hand Japan management is famous with “Toyotaism” and its own principles. In the American style of management the decision making is individual process as well as responsibility. The operation procedure is fast and flexible, the relations in the workplace are formal, and the length of employment is short. The influence of the government is minimal but the scientific experience is extended. The main difference between American and Japan management is the main goal of “Fordizmus”: the quantity, not the quality. “Toyotaism” accentuates: the quantity equals the quality. Japan companies are very social, loyal, and collective. The employee is human being, not a tool for producing. The employment is lifelong but employees are willing to stay in the work until the boss does not leave home. The decision making and also the responsibility are collective. And there exists big influence of the government in Japan companies. (The lecture of Prof. Ing. Július Alexy, CSc., 2000, October 16, University of Trenčín).