University of Wolverhampton

Todays manager

The Industrial Revolution began in the eighteenth century and transformed the job of manager from owner-manager to professional, salaried manager. Prior to industrialization, the United States was predominantly an agricultural society. The production of manufactured goods was still in the handicraft stage and consisted of household manufacturing, small shops, and local mills. The inventions, machines, and processes of the Industrial Revolution transformed business and management (such as, the use of fossil fuels as sources of energy, the railroad, the improvement of steel and aluminum metallurgical processes, the development of electricity, and the discovery of the internal-combustion engine.) With the industrial innovations in factory-produced goods, transportation, and distribution, big business came into being. New ideas and techniques were required for managing these large-scale corporate enterprises.