This progression is indicative of a civilizing process that has continually asked humanity to reassess its relationship with itself and to increasingly value the welfare of both the individual and wider society as a whole.
She states that prior to the Industrial Revolution, work was an "artisan activity engaged largely in the home, using long held and meticulously developed craft skills."
[5] The late 18th and early 19th century was a period where the artisan and the agricultural worker gave way to the burgeoning factory units that were beginning to emerge.
The enclosure of vast tracts of commonage in the countryside facilitated a move from pastoral farming to grazing – forcing many from the land, often in dire circumstances.
The growth of a mass society meant that the relationship with work was altered, it now became much more time centred and precise – a standardized approach was in the process of being developed.
[6][7] Alongside the migration of workers to the new factories largely situated around energy sources and communication networks – coal deposits and canals etc.
[6][7] this period witnessed the emergence of global corporations situated in key centres such as London and Paris, as trade followed the flag in a wave of colonization.
Peter Drucker who, during the 20th century was known as the 'father of modern management' said that Taylor was "the first man in history who did not take work for granted, but looked at it and studied it.
[17] The birth of modernity as it has been termed in the late 19th early 20th century presaged a period of incredible industrial, technical and intellectual advancement that was to completely alter mankind's relationship with and perception of time and space.
The birth of the railroad (which dates back to the early 19th century), and later the automobile, was to lead to seismic changes in the manner and means in which the organization of the various units of human enterprise were to be restructured, from warfare to commerce.
However, organizational theorists such as Charles Handy and Henry Mintzberg both decry the lack of leadership and management training in the post WWII period.
The contemporary zeitgeist suggests the developed world is primarily governed by social democracies, is hugely interdependent whilst engulfed in a tidal wave of endemic technological innovation and advances that will carry it into uncharted waters.
All this alongside a growing sense of awareness of a global environmental threat, diminishing supplies of carbon fuels coupled in all too many instances with an existential crisis, that asks what is it all about?
A prime example of progression from the antiquated hierarchical structures with its layers of middle management staffed by gate keepers congesting the flow of communications can be found in the 2008 Presidential Campaign conducted by Barack Obama.
In a future where any task that can be described as predictable or repetitive will invariably be delegated to forms of artificial intelligence, the old hierarchical command and control systems will become largely redundant.
Success will be premised on speed and innovation, on the ability of organizations to synthesize real time information and perform strategic pivots that will allow immediate access to new opportunities.