The evolution of management and organization emerged around the final decades of the nineteenth century. Hatch and Cunliffe (2006) proposed that the prehistoric period of organization and management theory was formed by two fundamental thoughts namely, sociological and managerial. These two schools of thought focused respectively on the organizational formality and influence within a society as well as the viable predicaments that managers deal with within those environments. According to Perrow (1973), the distinctive interests embodied by sociological and managerial thoughts created tension in organization and management theory relative to both theory and practice. Sociological and managerial ideas represent the basis of scientific management theory.
According to George (1968), the notable economist Adam Smith was one of the first to pronounce a theory that elucidates effective production in work practices that were systematically organized. Smith (1937) compared the relational performances of two dissimilar manufacturing methods and discovered that factory workers who specialized in single/distinct task or limited tasks had greater performance than those who performed multiple tasks for making a specific product (for example, pins). He recognized that higher productivity and efficiency resulted from job specialization. Job specialization denotes or mandates the division of labour among workers in order to improve work efficiency and improve organizational performance. Division of labour outlines the allocation of responsibilities and tasks in an organization (Hatch & Cunliffe, 2006). Smith concluded that organizational managers should control and organize the organization’s work process in order to capitalize on getting the most out of the advantages of division of labour as well as job specialization.