PHR®/SPHR® Professional in Human Resources Certification Study Guide, Third Edition

3.3. Strategic Management

As organizations have developed, and have continued to grow ever larger, the need for controlling large numbers of workers in geographically diverse locations presented a challenge for business owners, who responded by creating bureaucracies to ensure that operations were conducted in accordance with the direction set by senior management. These bureaucracies, developed by American businessmen in the mid-nineteenth century, enabled the dominance of American products throughout the world for 100 years and were emulated by businesses in other countries. As long as the demand for products was greater than the number of products available, this model, in which business dictated what it would produce to the customer, worked ...