Elliott Jaques’ Required Organization Theory: The missing chapter in management textbooks

Abstract

Management as a science is a relatively newcomer in the human repository. Some authors give the date of its birth in 1886 with Henry Robinson Towne’s lecture The engineer as an economist within the context of the Scientific Administration (George & Alvarez, 2005). Management theories developed and evolved since then and had been published in textbooks for the use of students. However, none of these textbooks offers a glimpse of Elliott Jaques’ (19172003) Requisite Organization. This article presents a Requisite Organization’s overview and makes a comparative analysis with other major scientific management theories developed in the past, following Glaser and Strauss (1967) method of continuous comparisons. The conclusion is that Jaques’ research of more than 60 years should be known in the academic world and taught in business schools.

Keywords

• organización requerida
• alcance temporal
• capacidad de procesamiento mental
• Teoría de los Sistemas Estratificados