Assignment on the Contribution of Charles Babbage, Adam Smith and Robert Owen in the Field of

Management

Topics: Economics, Charles Babbage, Adam Smith

Pages: 2 (612 words)

Published: June 26, 2013

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Assignment on the contribution of Charles Babbage, Adam Smith and Robert Owen in the field of
management.

Contribution of Charles Babbage in the field of Management

Charles Babbage (1792–1871) is known as the patron saint of operations research and management
science. Babbage's scientific inventions included a mechanical calculator (his "difference engine"), a
versatile computer (his "analytical engine"), and a punch-card machine. Babbage's most successful book,
On the Economy of Machinery and Manufacturers, published in 1832, described the tools and
machinery used in English factories. It discussed the economic principles of manufacturing, and analyzed
the operations; the skills used and suggested improved practices. He showed that reducing the tasks of
manufacturing to their simplest activities increases the numbers of people who can do them and, thus,
reduces the average wage which needs to be paid. According to him, a work should be divided into
mental and physical efforts and a worker should be paid a bonus in proportion to his own efficiency and
success of the business. Babbage emphasized the importance of division of labor, indicating that greater
profit could be made by specializing. Babbage also emphasized the importance of balance in processes
and the principle of optimum size of the manufacturing unit for each class of product.

Contribution of ROBERT OWEN in the field of Management

Robert Owen (1771–1858) was a successful Scottish entrepreneur and a utopian socialist who sowed the
first seeds of concern for the workers. He was repulsed by the working conditions and poor treatment of
the workers in the factories across Scotland. Owen became a reformer. At New Larnark, in his factory he
was trying to make different approaches to the workers. He reduced the use of child labor and used
moral persuasion rather than corporal punishment in his factories. He chided his fellow factory owners
for treating their equipment better than they treated...

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