Chapter 2
Historical Development of Engineering Management
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
2-1. Q: What was the lasting significance of the Sumerian priests’ need to maintain a permanent record
of temple property (which they did on clay tablets)?
2-2. Q: Stones for the pyramids were quarried far to the south (upstream on the Nile River) and were
brought downstream on rafts only during the spring flood of the Nile. Discuss some of the planning
and organizational implications of this immense logistic effort.
A: The depth of planning for the pyramids was certainly impressive. The stones had to be cut up to a
2-3. Q: Why was the Venetian development of double-entry bookkeeping so important to the
development of management?
2-4. Q: The development of cotton and woolen mills in the mill cities of England, and later New
England, caused tremendous sociological change as potential workers (especially women) swarmed
from rural areas to the growing industrial cities. Cite examples of similar occurrences in more recent
times in developing countries.
A: A senior/graduate class of 17 students, about half international, suggested the following:
2-5. Q: Summarize the contribution of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers to the
dissemination of better methods of (production) shop management. What does this say about your
need to be active in at least one professional society?
A: Frederick Taylor provides a good example -first he was inspired by Henry Towne’s paper in
2-6. Q: Matsushita emphasized the residual disadvantages to the United States of the teachings of
Frederick Taylor. Discuss the positive contributions Taylor and his contemporaries in the scientific
management movement made.
A: Taylor and his followers developed methods of work measurement and work design that provided
2-7. Q: What was the positive value of Max Weber’s model of “bureaucracy?”
2-8. Q: The essence of the Relay Assembly Test Room Experiments at the Hawthorne Works was that
expected correlations between productivity and physical factors such as illumination and rest periods
were not demonstrated. What other factors could explain the regular productivity increases observed
in these experiments?
A: Some of the conventional explanations have included (a) the feeling their work was important,
2-9. Q: Read at least part of In Search of Excellence and elaborate on one significant finding of Peters
and Waterman.
A: Each answer will need to be evaluated separately. Peters and Waterman summarize for us: ‘‘The
2-10. Q: As made clear in this chapter, engineers and engineer managers have made strong contributions
to management theory and practice. List the engineers and engineer managers identified in this
chapter, together with their contributions, and add any others you may know of.
A: Craftsmen inventors such as Hargreaves, Arkwright, Crompton, Cartwright, and Maudslay made