Management organisational history – a military lesson?

Offers an alternative explanation for the development and creation of industrial and post‐industrial organisational forms derived from military models. Organisation as history suggests that the military model was the only available and proven structure capable of coping with the industrial age. Suggests flexible military structures presaged contemporary flexible management and organisational structures. Management and organisational semantics betray martial origins. The past shapes the present and influences the future – professional managers need to understand their professional heritage.