4000BC
Concrete Pyramids
Location:
At the city of Giza, a necropolis of ancient Memphis, and today part of Greater Cairo, Egypt.
History
Contrary to the common belief, only the Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops), not all three Great Pyramids, is on top of the list of Wonders. The monument was built by the Egyptian pharaoh Khufu of the Fourth Dynasty around the year 2560 BC to serve as a tomb when he dies. The tradition of pyramid building started in Ancient Egypt as a sophistication of the idea of a mastaba or “platform” covering the royal tomb. Later, several stacked mastabas were used. Early pyramids, such as the Step Pyramid of King Zoser (Djoser) at Saqqara by the famous Egyptian architect, Imhotep, illustrate this connection.
The great pyramid is believed to have been built over a 20 year period. The site was first prepared, and blocks of stone were transported and placed. An outer casing (which disappeared over the years) was then used to smooth the surface. Although it is not known how the blocks were put in place, several theories have been proposed. One theory involves the construction of a straight or spiral ramp that was raised as the construction proceeded. This ramp, coated with mud and water, eased the displacement of the blocks which were pushed (or pulled) into place. A second theory suggests that the blocks were placed using long levers with a short angled foot.
Throughout their history, the pyramids of Giza have stimulated human imagination. They were referred to as “The Granaries of Joseph” and “The Mountains of Pharaoh”. When Napoleon invaded Egypt in 1798, his pride was expressed through his famous quote: “Soldats! Du haut de ces Pyramides, 40 si裬es nous contemplent”. (Soldiers! From the top of these Pyramids, 40 centuries are looking at us)
Today, the Great Pyramid is enclosed, together with the other pyramids and the Sphinx, in the touristic region of the Giza Plateau. Also in the area is the museum housing the mysterious Sun Boat, only discovered in 1954 near the south side of the pyramid. The boat is believed to have been used to carry the body of Khufu in his last journey on earth before being buried inside the pyramid. It may also serve him as a means of transportation in his afterlife journey according to Ancient Egyptian beliefs.
Description:
Over four thousand years ago, modern man built one of the greatest construction marvels of all time, the great pyramids of Giza. The awesome technology to create these structures developed in a few hundred years and disappeared just as fast, never to be duplicated. By about 500 B.C., during Herodotus’ visit to Egypt, the methods of construction were obscure, even to the Egyptian priests consulting their records[1][1]. Conventional wisdom states that the three great pyramids are made of stone blocks quarried, hauled over the Nile, and maneuvered up great ramps to their present positions. It is becoming clear, however, that the great pyramids are actually made of concrete. Even today with mounting evidence, people still cling to conventional ideas as to their construction.
The pyramids were constructed during the reigns of three pharaohs about 2500 BC. The great pyramid was built for a pharaoh named Khnumu-Khufu during his 20-year reign. The pharaoh ruled over an essentially agrarian society. This society was entirely dependent on the fall inundation (flood) of the Nile annually to fertilize the flood plain, on which they grew their crops. Various major construction tasks were undertaken only during these three months of the year, starting relatively small, reaching its zenith with the great pyramids, and dying away by about 500 BC. Although large constructions were undertaken, after the building of the great pyramids, none equaled them in magnitude and quality. The Egyptian priests told Herodotus that the great pyramid was completed during the reign of the pharaoh, 20 years.
To complete a pyramid within the lifetime of the reigning pharaoh was a monumental task. Masons designed the structure, selected and cleared the site, and laid out the orientation. As the site was being prepared, other groups of masons quarried stone blocks at twenty quarries throughout Egypt. These blocks were then hauled to the Nile, floated to the construction site, hauled up a ramp, and put in place. The pharaoh, to complete the pyramid being constructed, drafted one hundred thousand laborers, including slaves for labor, an impressive mental picture. For most people, thousands of labors and its associated stone theory are easy to conceptualize. A child’s blocks can be used to mimic the operation on a small but deceptive scale.
At the same time as the pyramids were being constructed, another intriguing development occurred. Fine alabaster vases with delicate, narrow throats and other artifacts were created in the same meticulous precision as the casing stones. How could the Egyptians hollow out the bottom of the vases through the narrow throat without a highly advanced technology, which has disappeared in the mist of time? Little if any indication of their manufacture remains.
There is evidence, in the quarries, of incomplete stone blocks and stele (obelisks) in various stages of completion, from later eras, abandoned for one reason or another. Also, there are chisel marks left from the era when the pyramid blocks were being extracted from the quarries. The marks vary considerably from era to era as the tools used to quarry changed[2][5]. Clearly, the stone was removed from the quarry.
Various authors including Herodotus, talking to Egyptian priests thousands of years after the completion, spoke of machines for raising the blocks. It stands to reason, if you did not have a stone block, you would not have to raise it. Later construction by the Egyptians themselves, Greeks, Romans, the masons of medieval Europe, and including the masons of today used the same basic method of cutting the blocks at the quarries and hauling them into place. The blocks are rough-cut with tools on site, the rough ashlar (rough cut stone) is removed, finished, and it is hauled to the structure location and is installed, a simple enough procedure to understand.
Each of these arguments support the concept that the blocks were; as is commonly thought; cut, hauled, floated, hauled, and placed. They are simple and straightforward, but there are certain problems with this theory.
Herodotus says the great pyramid was completed in 20 years with 2,500,000 blocks, The construction infrastructure shrinks substantially, to a manageable size of about 1,400 people.
We have two theories with significantly different technologies and similar results. The conventional theory suggests a fantastic technology, which was lost as fast as it was developed and even with modern methods, many facts cannot be adequately explained or duplicated. The concrete theory simply explains all of the observations and allows the eclectic craftsmen to complete the job in the time allotted. As their raw materials were consumed, the workmen adapted and developed different technologies to carry on their tasks, the old practices disappeared, and their results became an enigma.
Nile
Location:
East Owainat is located in the southwestern part of Egypt’s WesternDesert. The planned area to be cultivated amounts to 220 thousand feddans that depend on subterranean water available in the project area.
The Dream Comes True
The visit of President Mubarak to East Owainat gave an impetus to remove obstacles that might hinder investment there. Thus the government has put its plan to change this part of the western desert into a green paradise where groups of engineers, technicians and workers have started working in the area for making it viable to plant all kinds of grains, fruits and vegetables.
The Project Objectives:
Studies proved that the area of East Owainat holds ideal nature and environmental wealth for planting some kinds of fruits and vegetables in earlier seasons, as well as getting chemical-free exportable products for Europe.
The project contributes to creating a new urban community that accommodates about 100,000 people and provides 20,000 job opportunities in agriculture, agro-industries and animal breeding.
Desert covers more than ninety percent of Egypt. The dessert called the Red Land supported only small settlements in wadis and oases. The Egyptians lived on the
banks of the River Nile or beside canals leading from it. This was Kemet or the Black Land, named after the rich silt on which the farmers grew their crops. Without thisfertility, there would have been no civilization in Egypt. Until the modern days the pattern of life in Egypt for the majority of people has depended on the exploitation of its agricultural resources. Today the increase of population, growth of cities and building of large industries is changing Egyptian lifestyles.
The River Gift’s:
About two thousand five hundred years ago, Herdotus, who was a visitor from Greece, called Egypt “the gift of the Nile”. The Egyptian people sang special hymns to the river. The hymn below was written down during the period of time called the New Kingdom (which was from about 1570 to 1070 B.C.)
“Hail to thee O Nile that
issues from the earth
and comes to keep Egypt alive!
He that waters the meadows
which Ra created.”
To make the best use from the flooding of the Nile, the people built irrigation channels to carry water to their fields. They even built dams to hold back the water to be used during droughts. Many things these people did sound very similar to some people now. In some ways it was the same things the Sumerian people did. Since the floods came at predictable times in Egypt farming was much easier. The Egyptian people needed less cooperation than the Sumerians to get their work done. As a result they did not develop cities until a much later time.
Besides water, another very important gift of the Nile was the thick black mud which gets left behind during the flooding. This thick dark mud made the soil much richer and made the farmlands very productive.
The Nile gave the people other gifts too. Fish, geese, ducks and many other water birds that could be eaten made their homes in land of delta. A plant called papyrus which is a long, thin reed grew along the riverbanks. The Egyptians harvested papyrus and made lots of different things with it like: baskets, sandals, boats, and material to write on. The word paper that we use comes from the word papyrus.
The Egyptian people used the precious gifts of the Nile extremely wisely. Here in this land of fertile riverbanks and barren deserts, floods and drought, BlackLandRedLand these people somehow managed to build one of the most amazing civilizations in history.
2123-2081BC
The Code of Hammurabi:
Hammurabi was the ruler who chiefly established the greatness of Babylon, the world’s first metropolis. Many relics of Hammurabi’s reign (2123-2081 BC*) have been preserved, and today we can study this remarkable King . . . as a wise law-giver in his celebrated code. . . . . . [B]y far the most remarkable of the Hammurabi records is his code of laws, the earliest-known example of a ruler proclaiming publicly to his people an entire body of laws, arranged in orderly groups, so that all men might read and know what was required of them. The code was carved upon a black stone monument, eight feet high, and clearly intended to be reared in public view. This noted stone was found in the year 1901, not in Babylon, but in a city of the Persian mountains, to which some later conqueror must have carried it in triumph. It begins and ends with addresses to the gods. Even a law code was in those days regarded as a subject for prayer, though the prayers here are chiefly cursings of whoever shall neglect or destroy the law.
The code then regulates in clear and definite strokes the organization of society. The judge who blunders in a law case is to be expelled from his judgeship forever, and heavily fined. The witness who testifies falsely is to be slain. Indeed, all the heavier crimes are made punishable with death. Even if a man builds a house badly, and it falls and kills the owner, the builder is to be slain. If the owner’s son was killed, then the builder’s son is slain. We can see where the Hebrews learned their law of “an eye for an eye.” These grim retaliatory punishments take no note of excuses or explanations, but only of the fact–with one striking exception. An accused person was allowed to cast himself into “the river,” the Euphrates. Apparently the art of swimming was unknown; for if the current bore him to the shore alive he was declared innocent, if he drowned he was guilty. So we learn that faith in the justice of the ruling gods was already firmly, though somewhat childishly, established in the minds of men.
Yet even with this earliest set of laws, as with most things Babylonian, wefind ourselves dealing with the end of things rather than the beginnings. Hammurabi’s code was not really the earliest. The preceding sets of laws have disappeared, but we have found several traces of them, and Hammurabi’s own code clearly implies their existence. He is but reorganizing a legal system long established.
Hammurabi’s Code of Laws:
When Anu the Sublime, King of the Anunnaki, and Bel, the lord of Heaven and earth, who decreed the fate of the land, assigned to Marduk, the over-ruling son of Ea, God of righteousness, dominion over earthly man, and made him great among the Igigi, they called Babylon by his illustrious name, made it great on earth, and founded an everlasting kingdom in it, whose foundations are laid so solidly as those of heaven and earth; then Anu and Bel called by name me, Hammurabi, the exalted prince, who feared God, to bring about the rule of righteousness in the land, to destroy the wicked and the evil-doers; so that the strong should not harm the weak; so that I should rule over the black-headed people like Shamash, and enlighten the land, to further the well-being of mankind.
Hammurabi, the prince, called of Bel am I, making riches and increase, enriching Nippur and Dur-ilu beyond compare, sublime patron of E-kur; who reestablished Eridu and purified the worship of E-apsu; who conquered the four quarters of the world, made great the name of Babylon, rejoiced the heart of Marduk, his lord who daily pays his devotions in Saggil; the royal scion whom Sin made; who enriched Ur; the humble, the reverent, who brings wealth to Gish-shir-gal; the white king, heard of Shamash, the mighty, who again laid the foundations of Sippara; who clothed the gravestones of Malkat with green; who made E-babbar great, which is like the heavens, the warrior who guarded Larsa and renewed E-babbar, with Shamash as his helper; the lord who granted new life to Uruk, who brought plenteous water to its inhabitants, raised the head of E-anna, and perfected the beauty of Anu and Nana; shield of the land, who reunited the scattered inhabitants of Isin; who richly endowed E-gal-mach; the protecting king of the city, brother of the god Zamama; who firmly founded the farms of Kish, crowned E-me-te-ursag with glory, redoubled the great holy treasures of Nana, managed the temple of Hursaj-kalama; the grave of the enemy, whose help brought about the victory; who increased the power of Cuthah; made all glorious in E-shidlam, the black steer, who gored the enemy; beloved of the god Nebo, who rejoiced the inhabitants of Borsippa, the Sublime; who is indefatigable for E-zida; the divine king of the city; the White, Wise; who broadened the fields of Dilbat, who heaped up the harvests for Urash; the Mighty, the lord to whom come scepter and crown, with which he clothes himself; the Elect of Ma-ma; who fixed the temple bounds of Kesh, who made rich the holy feasts of Nin-tu; the provident, solicitous, who provided food and drink for Lagash and Girsu, who provided large sacrificial offerings for the temple of Ningirsu; who captured the enemy, the Elect of the oracle who fulfilled the prediction of Hallab, who rejoiced the heart of Anunit; the pure prince, whose prayer is accepted by Adad; who satisfied the heart of Adad, the warrior, in Karkar, who restored the vessels for worship in E-ud-gal-gal; the king who granted life to the city of Adab; the guide of E-mach; the princely king of the city, the irresistible warrior, who granted life to the inhabitants of Mashkanshabri, and brought abundance to the temple of Shidlam; the White, Potent, who penetrated the secret cave of the bandits, saved the inhabitants of Malka from misfortune, and fixed their home fast in wealth; who established pure sacrificial gifts for Ea and Dam-gal-nun-na, who made his kingdom everlastingly great; the princely king of the city, who subjected the districts on the Ud-kib-nun-na Canal to the sway of Dagon, his Creator; who spared the inhabitants of Mera and Tutul; the sublime prince, who makes the face of Ninni shine; who presents holy meals to the divinity of Nin-a-zu, who cared for its inhabitants in their need, provided a portion for them in Babylon in peace; the shepherd of the oppressed and of the slaves; whose deeds find favor before Anunit, who provided for Anunit in the temple of Dumash in the suburb of Agade; who recognizes the right, who rules by law; who gave back to the city of Ashur its protecting god; who let the name of Ishtar of Nineveh remain in E-mish-mish; the Sublime, who humbles himself before the great gods; successor of Sumula-il; the mighty son of Sin-muballit; the royal scion of Eternity; the mighty monarch, the sun of Babylon, whose rays shed light over the land of Sumer and Akkad; the king, obeyed by the four quarters of the world; Beloved of Ninni, am I.
When Marduk sent me to rule over men, to give the protection of right to the land, I did right and righteousness in . . . , and brought about the well-being of the oppressed.
1. If any one ensnare another, putting a ban upon him, but he can not prove it, then he that ensnared him shall be put to death.
2. If any one bring an accusation against a man, and the accused go to the river and leap into the river, if he sink in the river his accuser shall take possession of his house. But if the river prove that the accused is not guilty, and he escape unhurt, then he who had brought the accusation shall be put to death, while he who leaped into the river shall take possession of the house that had belonged to his accuser.
3. If any one bring an accusation of any crime before the elders, and does not prove what he has charged, he shall, if it be a capital offense charged, be put to death.
4. If he satisfy the elders to impose a fine of grain or money, he shall receive the fine that the action produces.
5. If a judge try a case, reach a decision, and present his judgment in writing; if later error shall appear in his decision, and it be through his own fault, then he shall pay twelve times the fine set by him in the case, and he shall be publicly removed from the judge’s bench, and never again shall he sit there to render judgement.
6. If any one steal the property of a temple or of the court, he shall be put to death, and also the one who receives the stolen thing from him shall be put to death.
7. If any one buy from the son or the slave of another man, without witnesses or a contract, silver or gold, a male or female slave, an ox or a sheep, an ass or anything, or if he take it in charge, he is considered a thief and shall be put to death.
8. If any one steal cattle or sheep, or an ass, or a pig or a goat, if it belong to a god or to the court, the thief shall pay thirtyfold therefor; if they belonged to a freed man of the king he shall pay tenfold; if the thief has nothing with which to pay he shall be put to death.
9. If any one lose an article, and find it in the possession of another: if the person in whose possession the thing is found say “A merchant sold it to me, I paid for it before witnesses,” and if the owner of the thing say, “I will bring witnesses who know my property,” then shall the purchaser bring the merchant who sold it to him, and the witnesses before whom he bought it, and the owner shall bring witnesses who can identify his property. The judge shall examine their testimony–both of the witnesses before whom the price was paid, and of the witnesses who identify the lost article on oath. The merchant is then proved to be a thief and shall be put to death. The owner of the lost article receives his property, and he who bought it receives the money he paid from the estate of the merchant.
10. If the purchaser does not bring the merchant and the witnesses before whom he bought the article, but its owner bring witnesses who identify it, then the buyer is the thief and shall be put to death, and the owner receives the lost article.
11. If the owner do not bring witnesses to identify the lost article, he is an evil-doer, he has traduced, and shall be put to death.
12. If the witnesses be not at hand, then shall the judge set a limit, at the expiration of six months. If his witnesses have not appeared within the six months, he is an evil-doer, and shall bear the fine of the pending case.
551 or 552-479BC
Confucius:
Confucius was born in a poor family in the year 551 B.C., and he was born in the state of Lu. His original name was K’ung Ch’iu. His father, commander of a district in Lu, died three years after Confucius was born, leaving the family in poverty; but Confucius nevertheless received a fine education. He was married at the age of 19 and had one son and two daughters.
This chinese man was a well-known leader in philosophy and he also made many wise phrases and theories about the law, life, and the government. Philosophy is a kind of a system of ideas and thoughts that talk about the human’s behavior, the rules that you should follow to make a successful life, and about the government.
In other words, it’s about thoughts and theories that teach other people lessons about principles, or rules, about life and it also teaches you a moral ( sort of like the morals that are at the end of a fable). Confucius is famous for his philosophy because he made many wise sayings in ancient China that helped many people learn about nature, the world, and the human behavior. He also helped the government and the emperor by teaching them lessons on how the emperor should rule his kingdom successfully.
He worked as a keeper of a market. Then he was a farm worker who took care of parks and farm animals. When he was 20, he worked for the governor of his district.
His mother died in 527 BC, and after a period of mourning he began his career as a teacher, usually traveling about and instructing the small body of disciples that had gathered around him. His fame as a man of learning and character and his reverence for Chinese ideals and customs soon spread through the principality of Lu.
Living as he did in the second half of the Zhou (Chou) dynasty (1027?-256 BC), when feudalism degenerated in China and intrigue and vice were rampant, Confucius deplored the contemporary disorder and lack of moral standards. He came to believe that the only remedy was to convert people once more to the principles and precepts of the sages of antiquity. He therefore lectured to his pupils on the ancient classics.
Confucius taught in his school for many years. His theories and principles were spread throughout China by his disciples, and soon many people learned from his wise sayings.
One of his rules said,” If you governed your province well and treat your people kindly, you kingdom shall not lose any war. If you govern selfishly to your people, you kingdom will not only lose a war, but your people will break away from your kingdom.” He had also said a wise phrase called the golden rule that is still being used as a rule today. It said,”A man should practice what he preaches, but a man should also preach what he practices.”
One day, his students and he passed a grave where they saw a women weeping at a gravestone. She told Confucius that her husband, her husband’s father, and her son were killed by a tiger. When Confucius asked her why she didn’t leave such a fated spot, she answered that in this place there was no oppressive government.
Confucius said,”Remember this, my child. An oppressive government is fiercer and more feared than a tiger.” That meant that the government in the woman’s province did not rule the province well. So Confucius said that the government was more feared than a tiger. This was one of the many events he had to give a person a less on
He taught the great value of the power of example. Rulers, he said, can be great only if they themselves lead exemplary lives, and were they willing to be guided by moral principles, their states would inevitably become prosperous and happy.
Confucius had, however, no opportunity to put his theories to a public test until, at the age of 52, he was appointed magistrate of Chung-tu, and the next year minister of crime of the state of Lu. His administration was successful; reforms were introduced, justice was fairly dispensed, and crime was almost eliminated. So powerful did Lu become that the ruler of a neighboring state maneuvered to secure the minister’s dismissal. Confucius left his office in 496 BC, traveling about and teaching, vainly hoping that some other prince would allow him to undertake measures of reform. In 484 BC, after a fruitless search for an ideal ruler, he returned for the last time to Lu.
Confucius was then abandoned from his province and he wandered about China for 13 years. When Confucius was 69 years old, he returned to Lu, his home state, and he died there 3 years after settling in Lu – 479 BC.
206BC-220AD
Based on Confucius…
After Confucius died, he was buried in a grave in the city of Ch’uFu, Shandong. Today the site of his final resting place is the beautiful K’ung Forest.
Yet, when the philosopher died, many people honored all of Confucius’ work by building temples in every city in China to honor Confucius. Since Confucius’ teachings and philosophy was so advanced, it was the education for China for 2,000 years. It is called Confucianism.
Confucius himself had a simple moral and political teaching: to love others; to honor one’s parents; to do what is right instead of what is of advantage; to practice “reciprocity,” i.e. “don’t do to others what you would not want yourself”; to rule by moral example (dé) instead of by force and violence; and so forth. Confucius thought that a ruler who had to resort to force had already failed as a ruler. “Your job is to govern, not to kill”
Confucius did not put into writing the principles of his philosophy; these were handed down only through his disciples.
The Lun Yu (Analects), a work compiled by some of his disciples, is considered the most reliable source of information about his life and teachings. One of the historical works that he is said to have compiled and edited, the Ch’un Ch’iu (Spring and Autumn Annals), is an annalistic account of Chinese history in the state of Lu from 722 to 481 BC. In learning he wished to be known as a transmitter rather than as a creator, and he therefore revived the study of the ancient books. His own teachings, together with those of his main disciples, are found in the Shih Shu (Four Books) of Confucian literature, which became the textbooks of later Chinese generations.
Confucius “Master Kung,” (551 BCE – 479 BCE) was a Chinese thinker and social philosopher, whose teachings and philosophy have deeply influenced Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese thought and life. His philosophy emphasized personal and governmental morality, correctness of social relationships, justice and sincerity. These values gained prominence in China over other doctrines, such as Legalism or Taoism during the Han Dynasty. Confucius’ thoughts have been developed into a system of philosophy known as Confucianism. It was introduced to Europe by the Jesuit Matteo Ricci, who was the first to Latinise the name as “Confucius.”
His teachings may be found in the Analects of Confucius, a collection of “brief aphoristic fragments”, which was compiled many years after his death. Modern historians do not believe that any specific documents can be said to have been written by Confucius, but for nearly 2,000 years he was thought to be the editor or author of all the Five Classics such as the Classic of Rites (editor), and the Spring and Autumn Annals (author).
What seems a matter of tiny importance has been long commented on and shows another of the Confucian specificities that have to be underlined. When one knows that in his time horses were perhaps ten times more expensive than stablemen, one can understand that, by not asking about the horses, Confucius demonstrated his greatest priority: human beings. Thus, when one sees a little bit of the greater picture, according to many ancient or recent Eastern and Western commentators, Confucius’ teaching can be considered a noteworthy Chinese variant of humanism.
Confucius also heavily emphasized what he calls “rites and music,” referring to these social conventions as two poles to balance order and harmony. While rites, in short, show off social hierarchies, music unifies hearts in shared enjoyment. He added that rites are not only the way to arrange sacrificial tools, and music is not only the sound of stick on bell. Both are mutual communication between someone’s humanity and his social context, both feed social relationships, like the five prototypes: between father and son, husband and wife, prince and subject, elder and youngster, and between friends. Duties are always balanced and if a subject must obey his ruler, he also has to tell him when he is wrong.
Confucius’ teachings have been turned later into a corps de doctrine by his numerous disciples and followers. In the centuries after his death, Mencius and Xun Zi both wrote a prominent book on these, and with time a philosophy has been elaborated, which is known in the West as Confucianism.
Although Confucianism is often followed in a religious manner by the Chinese, argument continues over whether to refer to it as a religion because it makes little reference to theological or spiritual matters (God(s), the afterlife, etc.).
Confucius’s principles gained wide acceptance primarily because of their basis in common Chinese opinion. He championed strong familial loyalty, ancestor worship, and respect of elders by their children and of husbands by their wives, and used the family as a basis for an ideal government. He expressed the well-known principle, “Do not to others what you do not want done to yourself” (the Golden Rule). He also looked nostalgically upon earlier days, and urged the Chinese, particularly the politicians, to model themselves on earlier examples – although whether or not older rulers had governed by Confucian standards is dubious.
Confucius’ political thought is based upon his ethical thought. He argues that the best government is one that rules through “rites” and people’s natural morality, rather than using bribery and force. He explained this in one of the most important analects:”If the people be led by laws, and uniformity sought to be given them by punishments, they will try to avoid the punishment, but have no sense of shame. If they be led by virtue, and uniformity sought to be given them by the rules of propriety, they will have the sense of shame, and moreover will become good.” This “sense of shame” is somewhat an internalization of duty, where the punishment precedes the evil action, instead of following it in the form of laws as in Legalism.
While he supported the idea of the all-powerful Emperor, probably because of the chaotic state of China at his time, his philosophies contained a number of elements to limit the power of the rulers. He argued for according language with truth – thus honesty was of the most paramount importance. Even in facial expression, one sought always to achieve this. In discussing the relationship between a son and his father (or a subject and his king), he underlined the need to give due respect to superiors; this demanded that the inferior must give advice to his superior if the superior was considered to be taking the wrong course of action in a given situation.
This was built upon by his disciple Mencius to argue that if the king was not acting like a king, he would lose the Mandate of Heaven and be overthrown. Therefore, tyrannicide is justified because a tyrant is more a thief than a king (but attempted tyrannicide is not).
Confucius’ philosophical school was first continued by his direct disciples and by his grandson Zisi. Mencius and Xun Zi are his two great followers, one on each “side” of his philosophy, perhaps simply described as optimism and pessimism. They built upon and expanded his ethico-political system.
Soon after Confucius’ death, Qufu, his hometown, became a place of devotion and remembrance. It is still a major destination for cultural tourism, and many Chinese people visit his grave and the surrounding temples. In China, there are many temples where one can find representations of Buddha, Lao Zi and Confucius together. There are also many temples dedicated to him which have been used for Confucianist ceremonies.
18th Century
Introduction
This assignment traces the history of Human Resource Management from
the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century to present times.
The assignment discusses key periods and movements in this field and
expands on their contribution to modern Human Resource Management.
In discussing the history of Human Resources Management it is
important to offer a definition of the subject. Human Resource
Management can be described as “The comprehensive set of managerial
activities and tasks concerned with developing and maintaining a
qualified workforce – human resources – in ways that contribute to
organisational effectiveness.” (DeNisi and Griffin, 2004)
The Industrial Revolution.
The momentum for the industrial revolution grew through the 17th
century. Agricultural methods were continually improving, creating
surpluses that were used for trade. In addition, technical advances
were also occurring, for example the Spinning Jenny and the Steam
Engine. These advances created a need for improved work methods,
productivity and quality that led to the beginning of the Industrial
Revolution.
Trade Unions.
During the late 1700’s and early 1800’s governments began to feel
pressure from the working class masses who started to question and
defy the power of the aristocracy. The working class began to form
workplace combinations and trade organisationsto provide a collective
voice for their rights. Governments tried to fight this using
legislation such as the Combination Acts of 1799/1800 in the UK, which
banned everything from meetings to combinations.
“There were also attempts to form general unions of all workers
irrespective of trade. William Benbow (a Lancashire shoemaker), Robert
Owen and many others looked upon trade unionism not just as a means
for protecting and improving workers’ living standards, but also as a
vehicle for changing the entire political and economic order of
society. Owen experimented with co-operative ventures and ‘labour
exchanges’; both attempts to bypass the existing order of wage
slavery.” (Trade Unions Congress, 2004)
Trade Unions were and are still an influential force, working for
continued economic and social development of workers and societies in
many countries around the world.
The Human Relations Movement
The Human Relations movement “…argues that people are not just logical
decision makers but have needs for creativity support, recognition and
self-affirmation.” (Theworkingmanager.com, 2004).
The movement presents an alternative and opposite approach to
scientific management as it focuses on the individual and not the
task.
The Human Relations movement boasts some of the world’s foremost
management thinkers and theories in its ranks:
– Abraham Maslow. The Hierarchy of Needs. Presented in the US
Psychology Review in 1943
– Douglas McGregor. Theory X and Theory Y. Published in the book ‘The
Human Side of Enterprise” in 1960.
– Frederick Herzberg. The Hygiene-Motivation Theory. Published in the
book “The Motivation to Work” in 1959. (www.accel-team.com, 2004)
Contemporary Human Resource Management
In modern business the Human Resources Management function is complex
and as such has resulted in the formation of Human resource
departments/divisions in companies to handle this function. The Human
resource function has become a wholly integrated part of the total
corporate strategy.
The function is diverse and covers many facets including Manpower
planning, recruitment and selection, employee motivation, performance
monitoring and appraisal, industrial relations, provision management
of employee benefits and employee education training and development.
Conclution
The history of Human Resource Management has progressed through the
ages from times when people were abused in slave like working
conditions to the modern environment where people are viewed as assets
to business and are treated accordingly.
The Human Resource function will have to adapt with the times as staff
become more dynamic and less limited in their roles and bound by a job
description.
In future we may see employees being measured on the value they
contribute to a business and not their cost to the business.
1795
Robert Owen, 1771-1858
Robert Owen was born in Newtown, Montgomery shire (Wales) on May 14, 1771, the sixth of seven children. His father was a Sadler and ironmonger who also served as local postmaster; his mother came from one of the prosperous farming families of Newtown.
Owen found himself in what would soon become the capital city of the English Industrial Revolution on the eve of that event as factories were built and textile manufacture expanded.. He was a serious, methodical young man who already possessed an extensive knowledge of the retail aspect of his chosen trade. In late 1790 he borrowed £100 from his brother William and set up independently with a mechanic named Jones as a manufacturer of the new spinning mules. After a few months he parted with Jones and started business on his own with three mules as a cotton spinner. During 1792, Owen applied for and was appointed manager of Peter Drinkwater’s new spinning factory, the Piccadilly Mill, where he quickly achieved the reputation as a spinner of fine yarns, thanks to the application of steam power to the mule. One of Drinkwater’s most important clients was Samuel Oldknow, maker of fine muslins. Drinkwater had intended Owen to become a partner in his new business by 1795, but a projected marriage alliance between Drinkwater’s daughter and Oldknow caused the cancellation of the agreement with Owen. Hurt and unwilling to remain a mere manager, Owen left Piccadilly Mill in 1795.
The industrial community at New Lanark had been planned by Richard Arkwright and David Dale in 1783, to take advantage of the water power of the Falls of Clyde deep in the river valley below the burgh of Lanark, twenty-four miles upstream from of Glasgow. In 1800, there were four mills making New Lanark the largest cotton-spinning complex in Britain, and the population of the village (over 2000) was greater than that of Lanark itself. Dale was progressive both as a manufacturer and as an employer, being especially careful to safeguard the welfare of the children.
New Lanark made Owen’s reputation as a philanthropist. The village remained much as Dale had made it although more living space was created and higher standards of hygiene were enforced. The primary contribution of Owen at new Lanark was in public buildings which emphasized his concern for the welfare of his workers, specifically, the New Institution for the Formation of Character (1816), the Infant School (1817) and the Store.
At New Lanark, Owen was responsible for overall management and general policy. His employees did not at first enjoy his attempts to regulate and improve their lives and his paternalism was more rigorous than his frequently absent partner, Dale. As a successful manager of people and business, Owen displayed a skill well in advance of his day but his welfarism, which was not really that unique, had a practical side. His store helped to raise real wages and the infant school enabled mothers to return to work when their children reached the age of one year. As a financier, Owen’s methods were sophisticated. He had relatively little capital of his own, yet his skilful management of partnerships enabled him to survive and become a wealthy man before leaving New Lanark in 1828.
At New Lanark, Owen involved himself in the public affairs of the day, the most important being education, factory reform, and the improvement of the Poor Laws. His first public speech was on education (1812) and was elaborated upon in his first published work, The First Essay on the Principle of the Formation of Character (1813). Together with three further essays (1813-1814), this comprised A New View of Society, which remains Owen’s clearest declaration of principles.
Owen’s explicit denunciation of religion evoked a mounting campaign against him which in later years damaged his public reputation and the work associated with his name. His last real opportunity to secure official approval for his scheme came in 1820 when he produced his Report to the County of Lanark in which his communitarian and educational theories were blended with David Ricardo’s labor theory of value.
19th Century
HISTORY OF 19th CENTURY AMERICAN POORHOUSES
Poorhouses were tax-supported residential institutions to which people were required to go if they could not support themselves. They were started as a method of providing a less expensive (to the taxpayers) alternative to what we would now days call “welfare” – what was called “outdoor relief” in those days. People requested help from the community Overseer of the Poor ( sometimes also called a Poor Master) – an elected town official. If the need was great or likely to be long-term, they were sent to the poorhouse instead of being given relief while they continued to live independently. Sometimes they were sent there even if they had not requested help from the Overseer of the Poor. That was usually done when they were found guilty of begging in public, etc.
BEFORE POORHOUSES
Prior to the establishment of poorhouses the problem of what to do with paupers in a community was dealt with in one of three ways:
1. Outdoor Relief provided through an Overseer of the Poor: When people fell upon hard times and members of their family, friends or members of their church congregations could not provide enough assistance to tide them over, they made application to an elected local official called the Overseer of the Poor. Within a budget of tax money, he might provide them with food, fuel, clothing, or even permission to get medical treatment to be paid out of tax funds.
2. Auctioning off the Poor: People who could not support themselves (and their families) were put up for bid at public auction. In an unusual type of auction, the pauper was sold to the lowest bidder (the person who would agree to provide room and board for the lowest price) — usually this was for a specific period of a. year or so. The person who got the contract got the use of the labor of the pauper for free in return for feeding, clothing, housing and providing health care for the pauper and his/her family. The welfare of the paupers depended almost entirely upon the kindness and fairness of the bidder. If he was motivated only by a desire to make the maximum profit off the “use” of the pauper, then concern for “the bottom line” might result in the pauper being denied adequate food, or safe and comfortable shelter, or even necessary medical treatment.
3. Contracting with someone in the community to care for Paupers: In this situation the care of a group of paupers was delegated to the person(s) who would contract to provide care at, again, the lowest price. This system allowed the opportunity for somewhat better supervision as indicated in the terms of the contract — which might specify what minimum standard of care must be provided and that community officers would do inspections, etc. There were still often the same opportunities for abuse that were noted above.
THE BEGINNING of the COUNTY POORHOUSE SYSTEM
During the second quarter of the 19th century, as the industrial revolution had its effect on the United States, the importation of the factory system from England was followed almost immediately by the full scale adoption of what seemed to be an inherent component of that system — the Poorhouse System.
Making History Today
An anchor in largely African-American North Philadelphia, the site of the first ordination of the first women priests in the Episcopal Church, the George W. South Memorial Church of the Advocate (1887-1897) is a landmark in the religious, social and architectural history of the United States. Born of the greatest single act of religious philanthropy in the history of Philadelphia at the time, the Church of the Advocate was built as a memorial to the merchant and civil leader George W. South. Its architect was Charles Burns one of the most prominent ecclesiastical architects in the late 19th and early 20th century. The church is the centerpiece of a sprawling complex including a chapel, parish house, and curacy and newly constructed multi-purpose building (the Paul and Christine Washington Family and Community Center).
No other church in America has been built in such a grand scale specifically for the working class. Also, none exhibits such a wide range of the canonical elements of Gothic Revival architecture: lavish architectural sculpture; stained glass windows by Clayton & Bell, one of the leading English firms of the period; a full apparatus of flying buttresses and an orientation to the true East. The church demonstrates the doctrine of involving workmen in the design process, echoing the programs that are part of the Advocate’s history.
1902
NATIONAL CASH REGISTER ESTABILSHED
President Theodore Roosevelt called a precedent-shattering meeting at the temporary White House at 22 Lafayette Place, Washington, D.C. A great strike in the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania threatened a coal famine on Friday, October 3, 1902. The President feared “untold misery . . . with the certainty of riots which might develop into social war.”1 Although he had no legal right to intervene, he sent telegrams to both sides summoning them to Washington to discuss the problem.
Roosevelt, who had been injured a month earlier when his carriage was hit by a trolley car, sat in his wheelchair pleading with representatives of management and labor. “With all the earnestness there is in me . ..,” the President urged, “I ask that there be an immediate resumption of operations in the coal mines in some such way as will . . . meet the crying needs of the people.” He appealed to the patriotism of the contestants to make “individual sacrifices for the general good.”2
This meeting marked the turn of the U.S. Government from strikebreaker to peacemaker in industrial disputes. In the 19th century, presidents, if they acted at all, tended to side with employers. Andrew Jackson became a strikebreaker in 1834 when he sent troops to the construction sites of the Chesapeake and OhioCanal.3 War Department employees operated the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad during the Civil War.
Here and there a ray of neutrality broke through the anti labor atmosphere. Congress established a Bureau of Labor in 1884, which was the forerunner of the present Department of Labor, Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, and Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 1886, Cleveland asked Congress to “engraft” on the Bureau of Labor a commission to prevent major strikes. In 1888, Congress passed a law aimed at promoting industrial peace in the railroad industry. After the Pullman strike, U.S. Commissioner of Labor Carroll D. Wright headed a group which made a colorless but honest report of the dispute. One recommendation provided the basis for the Erdman Act of 1898, under which the Commissioner of Labor and the Chairman of the Interstate Commerce Commission tried to mediate railroad strikes. The law had not yet been applied when a new Federal policy erupted from the industrial warfare in the coalfields in 1900 and 1902.
John Mitchell, who at the age of 28 became president of the United Mine Workers in 1898, hoped to achieve the same kind of success in the anthracite or hard coalfields of Pennsylvania. Anthracite coal at the turn of the century was an unusual business. Unlike soft coal, anthracite was a natural monopoly heavily concentrated in a few hundred square miles in five counties in Pennsylvania. Anthracite coal, because it burned cleaner than soft coal, had become the main heating fuel in many Eastern cities. Rivalry for control of the industry led to over expansion, violent business fluctuations, and eventually control by a few large independent mine owners, coal railroads, and bankers.
For miners the work was hard, intermittent, and hazardous. To keep wages low, operators flooded the coalfields with immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe. The men were of 14 different nationalities, spoke different languages, and had different customs. Of 150,000 workers, only 8,000 belonged to the United Mine Workers. But Mitchell hoped that the anthracite industry would negotiate with the union in order to reduce competition.
Mitchell underestimated the opposition of the mine operators, and the operators underestimated the militancy of their workers. In August 1900, the union drew up demands and asked for a conference. The operators refused to deal with the union. Mitchell offered to have the dispute arbitrated. The operators rejected the offer. Mitchell reluctantly called a strike on September 17, 1900. He was apprehensive about the miners’ response. But “poetic justice has been meted out,” he exultantly recalled. The non-English speaking miners, introduced to break labor organizations, had become staunch supporters of the United Mine Workers.
The White House was caught off guard by this major strike on the eve of a Presidential campaign. President William McKinley was running for reelection against William Jennings Bryan under the slogan of “Four Years More of the Full Dinner Pail.” Some newspapers charged that the strike was fostered by “conspirators working in the interests of Bryan.” Mitchell repeatedly denied that politics motivated the strike, but he admitted that the forthcoming election “proved of incalculable assistance to the mineworkers.”
The coal strike of 1902
The strike of 1900 was the prelude to a larger drama–the great anthracite coal strike of 1902. Restless miners demanded more pay and shorter hours, while the mine operators complained that profits were low, and that the union destroyed discipline. When the owners refused to negotiate with the union, miners appealed to President Roosevelt to call a special session of Congress. The operators, on the other hand, resented the Federal mediation which had brought about the shotgun agreement of 1900, and they bristled at the idea of renewed Federal interference.
1911
SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT
This is one of the names adopted for a certain body of principles and methods of management which have been propounded as applicable to industrial undertakings, other names being Efficiency Engineering and Industrial Management. Developed in the United States, mainly since about 1905, and particularly in connexion with engineering work, the methods of Scientific Management have exercised a profound influence on methods of factory management in England and on the continent of Europe, as well as in America. Though applicable to most of the problems of industrial administration, they have in fact been worked out mainly in connexion with the control of workshop processes.
The theory underlying Scientific Management is briefly that there is one best way “of doing every act that has to be performed in a workshop, and that it is the duty of the management to discover that “one best way ” and to make such arrangements as will ensure that it is always carried out.
The method of procedure may be indicated by propounding the following three questions:
I. What are the factors which limit the speed of a particular workshop process or machine?
2. Why is it that the volume of output from a particular process is always less at the end of the week than the product of the speed of the process or of the machine, multiplied by the working hours in the week, would lead one to expect?
3. Why do some workers produce so much more than others working under the same conditions?
An attempt to discover full answers to these questions leads to very far-reaching inquiries, and radical changes in organization and administrative methods may become necessary if the results of such inquiries are to be put to effective use.
Thus, the investigations prompted by the first question may be expected to lead to modifications of the mechanism and construction of a machine to enable it to run faster; to modifications of tools or appliances used; to changes of the material used for machine parts, for tools or for accessory purposes. Changes in the design of the
work to be done might also follow, which, while leaving the product just as suitable for its purpose as before, would enable the process to be carried out faster.
Investigation of the second question might lead to equally valuable discoveries. For instance, it might be found that the process was stopped altogether for portions of the working week for such reasons as lack of continuous supply of material to be worked on; changes of the ” set-up ” of a machine due to change in the nature of the work to be done; breakdowns of the machine; adjusting or sharpening of tools; waiting for instructions and many other possible causes.
The third question would lead to the discovery that different workmen had slightly different ways of doing the same thing, and that the ways of the faster workers could be explained to and adopted by the others; that some workers were temperamentally. more suited to a particular kind of work than others; that some were not trying; that others were trying too hard and were worrying themselves by their failure; that in some cases the relations between the workmen and the foreman were happy and in other cases not.
The origin of the movement is traceable to the work of F. W. Taylor, an American engineer, for many years a manager in the works of the Bethlehem Steel Co., Midvale, Pa. His investigations, leading later to the development of his methods and principles of management, sprang from the attempt on his part to lay down a standard fair day’s work and to see that he got it from the men under his control. This led him into a deep analysis of the elements affecting the amount of work that could be done in a given time, and in turn by the kind of steps already indicated to the formulation of his system. One of the largest single pieces of investigation carried through by him was concerned with establishing the laws governing the rate of removal of metal by cutting-tools in a machine. This was carried on at intervals during 26 years. One result of it was the discovery in 1899 of modifications in the composition of tool steel from which the modern high-speed steel was developed.
In 1895 Taylor published his Differential Piece Rate, which may be considered to be the basis on which all the multitudinous systems of payment by result of the Scientific Management movement are founded. Taylor’s system contained two revolutionary ideas. The first was the careful specification in great detail of the work to be done, with standard times allowed for each element of the work as against the ” overall ” time hitherto specified for the complete job.
The material equipment of a works requires special attention to keep it in conformity with the standard. The quality of raw material must be more carefully regulated to enable it to be worked at the standard speeds and on the standard methods. The elimination of waiting between jobs requires elaborate planning of work; the making of time studies is the work of experts; the studies themselves require constant revision to suit changes in design, working methods or material; the incentive to output necessitates systematic inspection of work to ensure the standards of accuracy or finish being maintained. In these and numberless other directions work of a much higher order than hitherto is demanded from the management staff if the system is to function at all.
In order to enable the works management to cope with the new demands made upon it, Taylor devised a new method of administrative organization known as functional control, and applied it particularly to the sphere of the shop foreman.
This rigid and literal working-out of Taylor’s idea of ” management by experts ” had usually to be modified in practice on account of the friction and confusion it almost inevitably led to, due to the difficulty of defining sufficiently clearly the sphere of each functional foreman, or to the clash of personalities.
Harrington Emerson embodied the necessary modification of Taylor’s scheme in his plan of ” Staff and Line” organization, published in 1909. In this the usual chain of executive authority, the ” line,” was maintained, by which a group of men was wholly answerable to a single foreman, a group of foremen to a departmental manager, several of these to a works manager, and so on. The experts, on the other hand, were collected into special ” staff ” departments, and their functions were to advise or instruct the “line ” officials as to what instructions should be given, or how their work could best be done.
The last of the three questions propounded at the beginning of this article did not receive the same amount of attention as the other two at the hands of any of the leaders of the Scientific Management school of thought. Taylor in his paper on Shop Management (1903) does, it is true, Taylor’s aim was the discovery, by records of individual performance, which men were as a matter of fact most successful in carrying out the task set them. The less successful were to be shown the correct methods of working, but if they still failed to reach the predetermined level of achievement, which was that of a good man, not an average worker, they were to be discharged to make room for others.
1914
Henry Ford Sociological Department
The Ford Motor Company announced what one Ford biographer called “the most advanced labor policy in the world.” On January 5, 1914, One week hence the automaker would establish a minimum wage of $5 a day, twice the industry standard. But in the frenzy that followed, few noticed the fine print. Ford would indeed improve the lives of thousands with increased wages, but not before they conformed to his social ideals.
When Ford thought about Lee’s findings in late December, an incident earlier in the year began to make sense. On a tour of the Highland Park plant just outside Detroit, he had seen two workers get into a fistfight. Ford’s embarrassment had turned to dismay when he realized that his men were discontented enough to become violent. Those two men were on his mind at a director’s meeting in the first days of January 1914. With the United States in the midst of a depression, the company had had a net income of more than $27 million and paid dividends of over $5 million in the previous year. As the discussion turned to projected expenditures for 1914, Ford began scrawling wage figures on a blackboard. He started with $2.34, the current base pay. The directors all agreed it could be increased. He calculated what $3 a day would cost, then $3.50, then $3.75, and on up to $4.75. Finally, as legend goes, his financial manager, James Couzens, dared him to raise it to $5. He did.
The high figure met with some resistance that day, but when the directors met again on January 5, everyone had warmed to the idea. According to the minutes, “The plan was gone over at considerable length,” after which the directors unanimously approved it. The company invited reporters from three local papers to the factory that very day for an announcement. As Ford gazed out Couzens’s office window, the reporters gathered behind him. Couzens read from a two-page typed statement that showed the company did not mistake the scope of its undertaking.
”The Ford Motor Company, the greatest and most successful automobile manufacturing company in the world, will, on January 12, inaugurate the greatest revolution in the matter of rewards for its workers ever known in the industrial world,” he began. He explained the details: Not only would the plant switch from two nine-hour shifts to three eight-hour ones, allowing it to run around the clock, but each man over 22 would receive the minimum wage of $5 a day, and ones under 22 would qualify if they had dependents. “The commonest laborer who sweeps the floor shall receive his $5 per day,” Ford told the reporters. “We believe in making 20,000 men prosperous and contented rather than follow the plan of making a few slave drivers in our establishment millionaires.”
The story hit Detroit newsstands late that afternoon, and by early morning the next day it topped the front page of every major paper in ecstatically hyperbolic headlines. The Michigan Manufacturer and Financial Record called Ford’s plan “the most generous stroke of policy between captain of industry and worker that the country has ever seen,” while the Toledo Blade deemed it “a lordly gift” and the New York Evening Post “a magnificent act of generosity.” One paper declared that the “World’s Economic History Has Nothing Equal to Ford Plan.”
Even before the story broke across the country, on January 6, a crowd began amassing outside the employment office at Highland Park. Some 10,000 gathered that day and 15,000 the next, even though the company, whose 4,000 open jobs had quickly been filled, posted no-hiring signs in three languages. The mob, many of them impoverished out-of-towners who had spent their last dollar getting to Detroit, kept warm in the zero-degree weather by binding blankets and newspapers around themselves with twine and gathering around trash-can fires.
The atmosphere turned from convivial to menacing as the days passed. On January 12 the men pushed through a wooden barrier and barred employees from entering the factory. Police finally took control by turning a fire hose on the crowd. The water immediately froze the men’s clothes, and they dispersed to thaw out. The Ford company nonetheless received 14,000 job-application letters in the week after the announcement, and two months later it was still getting 500 a day.
Henry Ford makes it difficult to pinpoint his true motivations, but the plan benefited the company in many ways. In addition to motivating his workers, Ford was, by giving his employees more disposable income (or any at all), also creating a consumer base for his product. He later claimed that with the $5 day “we really started our business, for on that day we first created a lot of customers.” But he was also influenced by the Progressive and populist movements and may truly have been animated by generosity. “Our company is making enough money to do some good in the world,” he said, “and I’m glad to do it.”
Still, his generosity, it soon emerged, came with strings. What few noticed on January 5 was that workers did not automatically qualify for the raise just by doing their jobs. Women, who had been earning on average $2.04 per day, did not qualify at all. “I consider women only a temporary factor in industry,” Ford explained. “I pay our women well so they can dress attractively and get married.” Men would have to live in Detroit and work at the plant for six months before they could earn the full amount.
Even then they had to meet Ford’s social standards to benefit. He shared the worry of many of the wealthy that laborers would squander their enlarged paychecks on vice and cheap thrills. Lee explained that the money might “work a tremendous handicap along the paths of rectitude and right living and would make of them a menace to society, and so it was established at [the] start that no man was to receive the money who could not use it advisedly and conservatively.”
To determine who was worthy, Ford expanded the company’s Sociological Department, set up in 1913. One-hundred fifty investigators visited employees’ homes and questioned them about everything from their marital status to their savings, health, hobbies, and child care. Excessive drinking, gambling, buying on credit, a dirty home, and an unwholesome diet were all grounds for probation; if a worker hadn’t cleaned up his act in six months, not only did he not earn his $5 a day, he was fired.
The man who had engineered the assembly line was now trying to engineer his employees’ private lives. “We want to make men in this factory as well as automobiles.” he said. The Sociological Department, which resembled contemporaneous Progressive experiments like the Urban League, was at bottom a reflection of the Victorian strictures under which Ford had been raised. Critics decried the company’s intrusion into its workers’ home lives. “The payment of good wages does not give an employer the authority to seek to regulate the internal family affairs of any man,” ran an editorial in the St. Albans, Vermont, and Messenger.
Finally, sick of the criticism, Ford abolished the department in 1920.
Ford called the $5 day “one of the finest cost-cutting moves we ever made,” but it is impossible to isolate its effects from those of the other benefits implemented that year—sick leave, a company bank, free lawyers, medical care, and the extension of lunchtime from 15 to 20 minutes—or from the inflation and labor demands of World War I, which began that November. By the time the United States entered World War I, three years later, the $5 day was commonplace across industry, but to those at Ford who first qualified in 1914 it was a godsend. One Highland Park employee was even moved to pen a poem in celebration.
1920
The term personnel Management was accepted
Human resource management (HRM) is a fairly new concept, first given general currency by the HarvardBusinessSchool in the early 1980s. Fifty years ago companies were still debating whether the term ‘personnel department’ should replace ’employment department’ and in the 1920’s even the largest companies commonly operated with simply a ‘time office’ and a separate ‘welfare department’. This transformation of people management activities reflects a greater emphasis on individual rather than collective employee relations, an increase in the complexity of the employment process and the growth of an important strategic dimension based on the notion of ‘human capital’. In Europe, there has long been a considerable gap between the Anglo-Saxon and continental approaches to the way enterprises are organized and operated. Companies in the UK and Ireland have a significantly higher proportion of managers relative to other employees than companies in countries such as Germany, and particularly Italy. This emphasis on management positions has itself been a factor in the development of human resource management within the British Isles. If we look at the proportion of professionally qualified human resource (HR) staff compared to other employees in medium-large companies across Europe, we find the UK has a ratio of just 1:127, while other (EU15) states (except for Ireland and Sweden) have an average ratio of 1:2,790. Although not all members and affiliates of professional personnel/HR bodies will be in management positions, the larger the HR department and the more sophisticated its staff, the more HRM jobs can be expected to exist.
Typical HR departmental structure: EMEA (US-owned multinational)
If the multinational enterprise is large enough, or the European business is established as a virtually autonomous entity, the regional human resource position may be at a ‘Director’ or even ‘VP’ level. In a typical company with a regional workforce of 1,000 staff, the HRM would operate with one specialist professional and an HR assistant working out of the same office, while local personnel managers would cover the principal geographical zones. Where the company has only small sales or service operation, the routine HR activities will normally be carried out by a general administrator and payroll clerk (or external payroll provider).
Future developments
The demands currently made upon HRM in the established EU countries differ considerably from those made upon their counterparts in new member states such as Poland, Hungary and the CzechRepublic. In the new EU states, all functions are generally more subject to line management control than in the EU, and this is reflected in the lower level of perceived autonomy amongst employees in Eastern Europe. Working practices also contrast significantly, especially in the incidence of shift work.
Comparison between employment characteristics in EU15 and new EU states (averages)
Employment characteristic
EU15 States
New EU States
Employee cannot change own working methods
29%
37%
Employees working on shifts
12.1%
23%
Employees working on Sunday
6.5%
11.7%
Employees with fixed-term/temporary job
10.5%
8.7%
Employees working at night
4.4%
5.4%
Employees with a second job
1.8%
5.2%
Length of time in present job
10.9 years
13.4 years
Length of working week
38.2 hours
44.4 hours
Language training in workplace (av/yr)
4 hours
11 hours
Management training in workplace (av/yr)
12 hours
7 hours
The HRM concept remains undeveloped in many of the established EU member states such as France and Germany. This is largely due to over-reliance on administrative procedures and company rules, the codetermination powers of works councils, the prevalence of sectoral collective bargaining, and widespread union resistance to workplace innovation. It therefore remains uncertain how far HRM methods will become the norm for managing personnel issues in the new member states.
World Ware-1
MASSIVE EMPLOYMENT
Ontario Tories launch massive attack on workers’ rights
The Ontario Tory government has announced reactionary revisions to the province’s labor code and is in the process of drafting legislation that will gut decades-old minimum employment standards. These changes, which are expected to be entrenched in law during the current session of the Ontario legislature, represent a new stage in the Tories’ assault on workers’ rights and will set a precedent for corresponding actions by governments across Canada and North America.The consultation paper also raises the possibility that this maximum may not apply to certain industries such as agriculture and construction.While the provision of a legal maximum workweek does not by itself guarantee workers will not face attempts by employers to coerce them to work even longer hours, it nevertheless represents an important legal protection which has stood for over a century. The proposed increase would set the standard back over 50 years. In other words, a company could compel its workers to work 60 hours one week, 48 the next and 72 hours in the third, and still be considered not to have exceeded the 60-hour maximum workweek The government is also proposing to eliminate the “one day’s rest in seven act” and replace it with a requirement to provide only 48 consecutive hours of rest every two weeks. The suggestion by the Ministry of Labour that these changes are intended to bring democracy and choice into the workplace is a transparent fig leaf. Some 500 businesses and institutions surveyed by the government’s Red Tape Commission identified reform of the ESA as a top priority to improve the province’s competitive position and attract investment. When the Tories and the employers talk about making the labor market more flexible, they mean that workers should be placed even more at their employers’ beck and call. In claiming that the striking down of decades-old minimum employment standards conforms with modern realities, the Tories are, with unintended irony, letting slip the truth—the reality of capitalism is such that as labor becomes more productive, and wealth expands exponentially, the global struggle for profits necessitates an all-out reversal of workers’ rights.
A broadside against the unions
In a decisive blow against an already compliant trade union movement, the Tory government introduced legislation November 2, which would cripple trade union rights and facilitate union-busting.
An amendment to the Labour Relations Act, Bill 139 stipulates that:
In all unionized workplaces, notices must be prominently posted explaining the procedures to be followed for desertification;
The window for union desertification is to be increased from 60 to 90 days;
When a union certification drive fails, there is to be a one-year “cooling-off” period before another is permitted;
In cases where workers are negotiating a first union contract, separate votes must be held on the employers’ contract proposals and whether to strike;
Employers that don’t sell construction services, i.e., municipalities, schools, banks, etc., are to be allowed to tender work on their construction projects to nonunion contractors.
The salaries and benefits of all union officials making in excess of $100,000 annually will henceforth have to be publicly disclosed.
1930s
Massive retrenchment during great depression
A century ago, philosopher and essayist George Santayana famously proclaimed that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. But does that nugget of wisdom apply to the world of human resources?
Perhaps. More to the point, a review of landmarks in the annals of HR may yield insights into where the profession is headed and, at a minimum, lend some perspective on how far it has come.
Such a reminder may inspire nostalgia, a deep sense of satisfaction at progress achieved — and hope for the future. With all that in mind, the editors of Human Resource Executive® considered the sweep of U.S. business and labor history and, with expert help, identified dozens of key events whose impact may be significant enough to classify them as turning points in the evolution of human resource theory and practice.
Indeed, the fallout from many of the HR turning points has been so broad and deep as to jolt American society as a whole in one direction or another. Thus, it is hard to imagine many other professional fields whose evolution has been so closely intertwined with the ups and downs, twists and turns of economic and social progress. (Education is another that comes to mind.)
A quick note on the process: The initial roster of “prospective turning points” identified by the editors of Human Resource Executive® was presented to a brain trust of distinguished HR academics (see sidebar). Panelists were asked to single out their top 10 picks to facilitate a consensus-based distillation of that longer list. Several panelists contributed their own personal turning-point candidates, some of which were incorporated into the master list. From the panelists’ top-10 lists, a consensus top-20 list was formed. Those items are laid out in these pages along with an additional 20 “honorable mentions” included in the timeline.
Many turning points are focused and self-contained events that occurred at a single point in time, such as the infamous 1911 Triangle Shirt Waist Co. fire, whose ultimate impact spread widely throughout the broad realm of employer-employee relations.
Others, such as the 1994 launch of The Monster Board, had a dramatic impact–but primarily on a particular function of HR–in that case, online recruitment. Still others were identified as key symbols of a broader trend that rocked — or continues to rattle — HR. An example is the 1977 formation of the Human Resource Planning Society, a manifestation of the emergence of the strategic perspective in HR.
For all their diversity of opinions, at least half of the panelists agreed that four of the turning-point candidates are worthy of special status. The “top four” list:
* The 1886 foundation of the American Federation of Labor;
* The 1909 publication of Principles of Scientific Management;
* Early 1930s research by the likes of Elton Mayo and Abraham Maslow into the human function in the workplace; and
* The 1964 enactment of the Civil Rights Act and the subsequent 1965 formation of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Mitchell’s assertion suggests this theme emerging from the chronology of turning points: A general shift from turning points involving change imposed by government action (e.g., the National Labor Relations Act, the Social Security Act, etc.), to trends and developments originating from within the private sector.
Wellington concurs with that perception. “Clearly, there has been a shift in thinking about the role of government and that of the employer,” she says.
In recent years, she has witnessed a transformation among her students’ attitudes that reflect the larger change in public perception. Wellington teaches a class on women in business leadership in which she frequently asks students, “What entity would you turn to for assistance in balancing work and home life?”
In earlier years, she says, “students would have said, ‘The government, of course.’ But today they say, ‘I’d turn to my employer’ or ‘I’d figure it out on my own.’ ” Perhaps an even starker illustration of the fading impact of those earlier labor-oriented turning points in HR comes from Michael R. Losey, a consultant and former chief executive of the Society for Human Resource Management. An individual holding a “major HR position” in a large organization who was taking a class Losey was teaching shocked him by asking whether striking workers continue to be paid by their company while on strike.
“How could this person not know that answer?” he asks. “Where was her life experience or general education? How can she effectively serve as a general manager?” Yet the decline in unions plays a part in another fundamental shift in the HR world that, according to Losey, has occurred too gradually to pin to any particular event that would qualify as a turning point. That’s HR’s evolution “from a male-dominated profession to a profession dominated by women.”
In 1992, conservative international affairs pundit Francis Fukuyama wrote a provocative book entitled The End of the History. In it, he argued that “a true global culture has emerged, centering around technologically driven economic growth and the capitalist social relations necessary to produce and sustain it.” No longer would tyrants rule or nations clash, given a new understanding of the universal path to prosperity and happiness, he wrote. Quaint-sounding, perhaps, for 2006.
World war –2
Massive Employment
World War Two Employment (1939-1945)
Many men worked in reserved occupations such as the steel industry or mining during the war. Many women who volunteered before the war joined the civil defence.
In the centuries-old history of armed struggle, there were a good few periods of transition from some methods and forms for its conduct to others. They did not emerge all at once and oftentimes they took place imperceptibly in response to a good many various developments, the dominant role among which was invariably played by the qualitative and quantitative changes in the evolution of the material and technical means, above all, by the apparition of new more sophisticated weapons. As the illustration, one can cite the Franco-Prussian war (1870-1871), which was waged, one might say, at the junction of two epochs in the development of military art.
The second half of the 19th century was characterized by the rapid growth of production, including the warlike industry, which offered to the Western states the opportunity for building-up more numerous armies than in the past and the chance for the considerable improvement of their combat hardware, in particular, for the intensive introduction of the more efficient rifled firearms. Besides, the use of rail transport started playing the significant role in ensuring the accelerated deployment of the army in the theatre of military operations, and the use of telegraph for the improvement of troop command and control.
Speaking about the present stage of military art development, one ought to single out the principal feature, which significantly distinguishes it from all the preceding periods. It consists in the changing of the contents of armed struggle, which form themselves under the impact of fundamentally different operational and strategic factors. The following triad occupies the exceptional position among them: the intensive development of precision (smart) weapons (PW), the emergence of radio-electronic warfare, and of space-based reconnaissance and navigation systems.
The special operations forces (SOF) are of no little significance in high-accuracy fighting engagement. For instance, during the war in Iraq (2003) they embarked on combat actions long before the start of the active phase of the air-land operation. The SOF units made the reconnaissance and supplementary reconnaissance of the critical objects and carried out target indication. Their drop shipment in the rear of the Iraqi troops was made by the airmobile method, with the military personnel being airdropped in the immediate proximity to the objectives. Besides, airborne descents were carried our involving the air dropping of the substantial military personnel, weapons and equipment by the aerial delivery method (the air dropping of the detachments of the 173rd Independent Airborne Brigade in Northern Iraq, of the units of the 82nd Airborne Division and of the 101st Air Assault Division).
The development of such integrated strike aerospace means with using new scientific achievements will usher in new technological breakthrough in the instruments of war and, consequently, in the contents of high-accuracy military engagement. This is yet another evidence confirming the fact that “noncontact,” long-range combat actions will occupy the domineering position in future wars, the extensional scope of air-space-land maneuver will increase, the mobility of combat actions will rise and they will escalate precipitously, without continuous front lines, and electronic, energy-oriented and informational exposure will be put into effect with growing intensity time- and space-wise.
In preparing high-accuracy military engagement, it is expedient, in our view, to plan combat actions stage-wise:
* First stage — the detection of the enemy by using the space-based and aerial reconnaissance means, the plotting of the exact coordinates of objectives (targets), the concurrent implementation of measures for counteracting reconnaissance, and by revealing enemy preparations for the launching of massive aircraft-launched missile attack;
* Second stage — the deployment of the intrinsic attack-fire, “electronic,” aerospace and orbital forces, the implementation of measures for achieving the operational concealment and suddenness of military actions, fighting against enemy airmobile descents, subversive-terror detachments and groups in the event of their airdropping;
* Third stage — delivering aircraft-launched missile attacks against the enemy, the winning of strategic initiative;
* Fourth stage — the restoration of troops fighting capabilities, of the control system and interaction.
At the end of World War Two, those women who had found alternate employment from the normal for women, lost their jobs. The returning soldiers had to be found jobs and many wanted society to return to normal. Therefore by 1939, many young girls found employment in domestic service – 2 million of them, just as had happened in 1914. Wages were still only 25p a week.
When women found employment in the Civil Service, in teaching and in medicine they had to leave when they got married.
However, between the wars, they had got full voting equality with men when in 1928 a law was passed which stated that any person over the age of 21 could vote – male and female.The war once again gave women the opportunity to show what they could do.
1940s
Major incidences outlined above called for separate HRM unit in every organization
Human resource management (HRM), or human resource development, entails planning, implementing, and managing recruitment, as well as selection, training, career, and organizational development initiatives within an organization. The goal of HRM is to maximize the productivity of an organization by optimizing the effectiveness of its employees while simultaneously improving the work life of employees and treating employees as valuable resources. Consequently, HRM encompasses efforts to promote personal development, employee satisfaction, and compliance with employment-related laws.
To achieve equilibrium between employer and employee goals and needs, HRM departments focus on these three general functions or activities: planning, implementation, and evaluation. The planning function refers to the development of human resource policies and regulations. Human resource managers attempt to determine future HRM activities and plan for the implementation of HRM procedures to help companies realize their goals.
Maintenance requires structuring labor relations—the interaction between a company’s management and its unionized employees—and ensuring compliance with federal and state employment laws. Finally, the evaluation function includes the assessment of a company’s HRM policies to determine whether they are effective.
Key principles and practices associated with HRM date back to the beginning of mankind. Mechanisms were developed for the selection of tribal leaders, for example, and knowledge was recorded and passed on to youth about safety, health, hunting, and gathering. More advanced HRM functions were developed as early as 1000 and 2000 B.C. Employee screening tests have been traced back to 1115 B.C. in China, for instance. And the earliest form of industrial education, the apprentice system, was started in ancient Greek and Babylonian civilizations before gaining prominence during medieval times
Between the 1880s and the 1940s, immigration rose significantly and remained robust until World War II. Advertisements circulated throughout the world depicting the United States as the land of opportunity where good-paying industrial jobs were plentiful. As a result, the country had a steady stream of low-skill, low-cost immigrant workers who occupied manufacturing, construction, and machinery operation positions. Even though these employees performed largely routine tasks, managers faced serious obstacles when trying to manage them since they spoke different languages.
Businesses and organizations rely on three major resources: physical resources, such as materials and equipment; financial resources, including cash, credit, and debt; and human resources or workers. In its broadest sense, HRM refers to the management of all decisions within an organization that are related to people. In practice, however, HRM is a tool used to try to make optimum use of human resources, to foster individual development, and to comply with government mandates. Larger organizations typically have an HRM department and its primary objective is making company goals compatible with employee goals insofar as possible. Hence, for a company to attain its goals, it must have employees who will help it attain them
Acquisition duties consist of human resource planning for employees, which includes activities related to analyzing employment needs, determining the necessary skills for positions, identifying job and industry trends, and forecasting future employment levels and skill requirements. These tasks may be accomplished using such tools and techniques as questionnaires, interviews, statistical analysis, building skill inventories, and designing career path charts. Four specific goals of effective human resource planning are:
Sustaining stable workforce levels during ups and downs in output, which can reduce unnecessary employment costs and liabilities and increase employee morale that would otherwise suffer in the event of lay-offs.
Preventing a high turnover rate among younger recruits.
Reducing problems associated with replacing key decision makers in the event of an unexpected absence.
Making it possible for financial resource managers to efficiently plan departmental budgets.
DEVELOPMENT.
The second major HRM function, human resource development, refers to performance appraisal and training activities. The basic goal of appraisal is to provide feedback to employees concerning their performance. This feedback allows them to evaluate the appropriateness of their behavior in the eyes of their coworkers and managers, correct weaknesses, and improve their contribution. HRM professionals must devise uniform appraisal standards, develop review techniques, train managers to administer the appraisals, and then evaluate and follow up on the effectiveness of performance reviews. They must also tie the appraisal process into compensation and incentive strategies, and work to ensure that federal regulations are observed.
EVALUATION OF HRM METHODS
One of the most critical aspects of HRM is evaluating HRM methods and measuring their results. Even the most carefully planned and executed HRM programs are meaningless without some way to judge their effectiveness and confirm their credibility. The evaluation of HRM methods and programs should include both internal and external assessments. Internal evaluations focus on the costs versus the benefits of HRM methods, whereas external evaluations focus on the overall benefits of HRM methods in achieving company goals. Larger human resource departments often use detailed, advanced data gathering and statistical analysis techniques to test the success of their initiatives. The results can then be used to adjust HRM programs or even to make organizational changes.
The authors of Human Resources Management posit four factors, the “four Cs,” that should be used to determine whether or not an HRM department or individual program is succeeding: commitment, competence, cost-effectiveness, and congruence. In testing commitment, the HRM manager asks to what extent do policies enhance the commitment of people to the organization? Commitment is necessary to cultivate loyalty, improve performance, and optimize cooperation among individuals and groups.
FORCES CHANGING HRM
In the 1990s several forces were shaping the broad field of HRM. The first key force, new technologies—particularly information technology—brought about the decentralization of communications and the shake-up of existing paradigms of human interaction and organizational theory. Satellite communications, computers and networking systems, fax machines, and other devices were facilitating rapid change. Moreover, since these technologies helped blur the lines between work time and personal time by enabling employees to work at home, HRM professionals began adopting “management by objective” approaches to human resources instead of the traditional “management by sight” method.
A third change factor was accelerating market globalization, which was increasing competition and demanding greater performance out of workers, often at diminished levels of compensation. To compete abroad, companies were looking to their HRM professionals to augment initiatives related to quality, productivity, and innovation. Other factors changing HRM include: an accelerating rate of change and turbulence, resulting in higher employee turnover and the need for more responsive, open-minded workers; rapidly changing demographics; and increasing income disparity as the demand for highly educated workers increases at the expense of lower-wage employees.
