著者

服部 哲郎

出版者

経営史学会

雑誌

経営史学 (ISSN:03869113)

巻号頁・発行日

vol.35, no.4, pp.82-106, 2001-03-25 (Released:2010-11-18)

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Although a great deal of effort has been made to apply the “scientific management” devised by Frederick W. Taylor, little attention has been given to the “scientific office management” of William Henry Leffingwell. The purpose of this paper is to examine early phases of scientific office management in the life insurance industry during the interwar period, and to indicate its effects on the relationship between “office management” and “personnel management.” As the first step in my analysis, the scheme of scientific office management needs to be examined in detail. Scientific office management was the first unified theory of office management and clearly copied “scientific management, ” that is, a total system initially designed for industrial applications. Its essence was reflected in the Examination and Rating Plan proposed by Leffingwell in 1923 to evaluate, as justly and accurately as possible, the efficiency of any office.In the following pages, to test the validity of its claim, I explore the impact of the examination and rating plan on the life insurance industry through a certain association's activities. The Life Office Management Association (LOMA) was an international association of life insurance companies founded in 1924 and also one of the leading office management associations that eagerly promoted such schemes for offices in the years before World War II.In conclusion, the following three points were reached. First, it may be presumed that there is a gradual stage from “office management” to “personnel management.” Second, there might be some correlation between “office management” and “personnel management.” Third, the first two hypotheses remain topics to be discussed further on the grounds that it is difficult to apply them to other industries. Further study should provide more evidence for these hypotheses.