Our society is organized according to principles formulated by Frederick Taylor in the late 19th century and yet taylorism nowadays is seen mor or less as a curse. How could that happen? Why was it that Quality Management didn't make it in the United States while Japan, using this concept, became the biggest competitor for the American car industry? Bookshops are overflown with management literature, but what is really used in organizational change? The authors of this book discuss a number of the most popular organizational theories of the 20th century. By relating them to the societal environment in which these theories emerged they show how much organization theories are influenced by opinons in and on society. Change in theory reflects change in society and so history of organization theories is part of our social history.