Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Chester Barnard


I wrote this entry, originally, on July 10, 2004.


I have started reading Chester Barnard's The Functions of the Executive.


It has been recommended by professor Oliver Williamson (Economics, Law School and School of Business at UC Berkeley) as an important work. Professor Williamson has reviewed Bernard's influence in Mechanisms of Governance.


The volume I have in my hand is published by the Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is the thirty-ninth printing (2002) of the book, originally published in 1938.


What sort of book is it that gets to have so many printings?


Apparently, Barnard never completed Harvard, but he wrote one of the most influential books there is when it comes to management, executive functions and organizational theory.

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