PART – I
Scholars in “Business Administration”, irrespective of the time and span of domain, are required to understand the role and importance of History. This paper builds on the same theme supported by valid arguments and facts. The assumption made is “Scholars of any established body of knowledge, probably possess the capacity to, understand the evolution of that particular discipline as an organized body of knowledge”, while initiating the study. It is specifically mentioned that in case of even collapse of assumption too, the study would hold good. The attempt here is targeted on detailing, in a brief manner, the evolution of the discipline named Business Administration as an organized body of knowledge.
STEP – I
In the initial days of human civilization, when population inhibiting the earth was very low, the vacancy for individuals with best mental faculty existed so as to entrust them with the responsibility of policy making. This happened for the reasons of complexities involved in the science and art of policy making; and the individuals responsible for the task were supposed to work in a non – self – involving manner.
STEP – II
Consequent to phenomenon of rapid increase in population and passage of time, the learned policy makers were forced to realize that, if seen in a comparative perspective, probably ‘Policy Making’ as an art had become easier as compared to ‘implementation of the policy‘; which is must for proper governance and control the individuals and societies.
STEP – III
The time couldn’t have been better for initiation of new thought process, and the same was ultimately but brilliantly done by a devoted scholar “Mr. Woodrow Wilson”. Mr. Wilson, a scholar of knowledge domain termed “Political Science & International Relations”, is credited as first individual who established a dichotomy separating “Political Science” & “Public Administration”. Thus a new domain of knowledge was born and christened as “Public Administration”.
Mr. Woodrow Wilson, later on, got elected to the office of President of ‘United States of America’.
STEP – IV
A logical deduction that can be drawn from the deliberations is that ‘with the increase in the number of people to be administered, the sub system ‘Public Administration’ that used to be a part of super system ‘Political Science and International Relations’ got inflated as super system itself.
Journey called Public Administration
It is of significant to mention that, as a full fledged discipline, the discipline of “Public Administration” equipped itself with tools possible from all disciplines worth contributing fruitfully in the achievement of its objectives as a body of knowledge. This can be held responsible for the multidisciplinary nature of the body of knowledge.
The is to clarify further that the disciplines contributing in this manner for achievement objectives of ‘Public Administration’ do not get the status of related or concerned stream or subject matter and should not be dubbed so.
Illustration
The domain of knowledge named ‘Physics’ makes use of tools provided by ‘Mathematics’ in a significant manner. Even in such a scenario scholars of neither ‘Mathematics’ nor ‘Physics’ would ever claim these to be related disciplines of either of them. The similar is the case with ‘Economics’ and ‘Statistics’ too, specifically while dealing with ‘Econometrics’.
[Note: Other domains of learning, viz, Agriculture Economics or Live Stock Economics etc. is being considered here, as this may be considered, by scholars of domain, as degrading these respected disciplines of knowledge. These domains are in no way comparable to either ‘Economics’ or ‘Administrative Sciences’. In fact these turn out to be too specific domains developed to address the problems of the specific to these domains, and these problems are vital in nature for survival and welfare of humanity. ]
STEP – V
In the domain of ‘Public Administration’, the word public is used to represent a congregation of people, [where congregation is significant in terms of number of people], good enough to be called as a Society, Public, State or Nation.
STEP – VI
Any individual, prudent enough, would be in agreement with the author, in comprehending that Business happens to a ‘niche area’ of any society while working, in and for the society, in a congruent manner to achieve the objectives of the society. In common terms it can be explained as, ‘Goals’ set by Business for being achieved by it, positively contribute towards achieving the overall goal of society. It can be in many forms viz., generating employment, producing the products or services which are required for smooth functioning of society, while spending a part of its earnings for the welfare of less privileged or less fortunate people of society and area inhabited by them.
STEP – VII
Ensuring the efficient and symbiotic functioning of niche area of society termed ‘Business’ so as to result in win – win situation for both, business on one side, and rest of society on the other end, created the need for a domain of knowledge that is developed to specifically address this area.
The easiest way to do this is, just extracting out the relevant portions, addressing the administration or governance of business, from the domain of knowledge called ‘Public Administration’.
Now, It is time to celebrate, the birth of a new and specialized domain of knowledge and this child has been christened ‘Business Administration’.
Moving further on the same direction in search of the nearest relatives of Science and arts of ‘Business Administration’; one is bound to land up in and around the domains viz., Political Science, International Relations, Public Administration, Political Economy, History of International Business, Development of Mechanism of Revenue Collection, Span of Control, Numerous types of Organizational Structure for providing an efficient and just administration. The strains like Human and Social Psychology, Sociology, law of land, science of decision making.
PART – II
The issue now is to learn and establish the fact that is the body of knowledge being deliberated here, so new in nature, as to be taken to be born in late Twentieth or Early Twenty First Century. Or the same was born in past, flourished, reached its youth and also touched its possible top possible mature status and got extinct like many of the other living and non living phenomenon found on earth due to the changes occurring with time on earth.
Any person of my level probably would do what I am doing. I am now moving in fold of history to get, if possible, some cues on it. The reason for same can cited as below:
1. The times when I was in my adolescences, I got to here many times and occasions, the words in the language [a mix of Sanskrit and Hindi] “VASUDHAV KUTUMBKAM”, meaning, ‘the world is our home’.
Deliberation:
Probably, it is difficult to believe for me, today, when I have for last over a decade am hearing of the phenomenon called ‘Globalization’.
The part of Asia, which I happen to be born, grown and learning new concepts and philosophies, even as on date, has advocated as profession known as Business and/ or Trade to me much respectful than providing service of any kind.
The population inhabiting the landmass still narrates the stories, theses days called as Arabian Knights, precious stones and gems, [related to Arab World], of Rulers like Alexander [Roman Empire], the stories of Panchtantra [much older than Europe, with nothing like USA of today in place], the European Dark Ages etc.
The stories of various scholars like Huentsang, Fahyan, Albaruni and many of the kind visiting the land with the specific purpose of learning and discovering knowledge from the area called Gulf and middle Asia to the Universities like Nalanda and Takshshila etc.
Every body from Gulf, Middle Asia and even post tenth century from Europe visited the land to make fortunes via trade in the area.
The influence of area was so vast even in terms of Administration that states or nations today called as Combodia [Angkorvat], Malaya [Maldives], Singapore, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, and many more like that were in its fold of Governance. The area today may be visualized as Greater India [an old concept – not much alive today].
The United States of America was lucky and should be thankful to the area [may be called INDIA], as it got noticed, only when a great sailor cum trader started on journey to discover the trade route to India. Luckily for USA and may be not so lucky for Columbus, that he got disoriented, to touch the landmass called America.
What all this could be dubbed if not as “a society at pinnacle of its development, and the phenomenon called as Globalization in today’s context”?
All these facts are coaxing the author to embark on a journey in time, the time which is past and called history, to develop a clear understanding. So with permission from learned academician and scholars the author embarks on the journey to trace the origin of phenomenon called ‘Globalization’.
History has always come to the rescue of any individual aiming to be dexterous in the domain called administration, governance, international relations, evolution of a system for efficient administrative and governance, making policies for maximizing the welfare of mankind, exploring the unexplored universe etc.. and then too the list may remain illustrative in place of being exhaustive.
As an scholar committed to contribute to the discipline of Business Administration, author finds history to be a sound bazooka. The attempt can be made to trace and document the process of evolution of trade and commerce in past civilization, along with the horizon touched by them. The process of administration of nurturing and blossoming such relations over the past would be providing sound and fertile breeding ground.
The same then can be fruitfully, and economically utilized for developing the ways and means to counter the threats being faced by humanity in form of calamities of economic nature but probably not related too domain. Thus no tools discovered till now to cure the disease.
Here, as said by Professor Dereck D. Jones [2004] can be quoted as below
“International Business scholars often talk about history, but rarely take it seriously. Or so it would seem from reading the pages of JIBS. A simple search showed that the word “history” was mentioned in 119 articles and notes published in the journal since 1990. The word “evolution” occurred in 135 articles and notes. Yet not a single article was explicitly devoted either to the history of IB or employed historical data to explore an issue. Only a handful of articles contained longitudinal data covering more than a decade.” (Derek D. Jones 2004)
The discussions about History could be started from Eighth Century onwards, as the particular era is known as ‘Dark Age for Europe’ and any landmass like United States of America was not connected, even if present, to the main stream of Global/ World Society.
The present study being compiled for being presented to world community, may force the great philosophers of the discipline to revisit the theories and principals of globalizations just based on based on developments of yesterday. Simply because there have been many years prior to yesterday and one needs to get rid of Myopia while talking on such subject matters.
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NOTE: Questions, Arguments, Discussions, Suggesstions are Welcome and is Open for Comments too.
This a paper in process to turn out as another monograph or Working Paper Series Publication.
Always Yours — As Usual — Saurabh Singh
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