Management science and project management: an interdisciplinary lineage seen through the lens of the history of managerial thought

Sciences de gestion et management de projet: une filiation interdisciplinaire au prisme de l’histoire de la pensée managériale

Yannis Martin ()
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Yannis Martin: COSTECH - Connaissance Organisation et Systèmes TECHniques - UTC - Université de Technologie de Compiègne, UTC - Université de Technologie de Compiègne

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Abstract: This presentation aims to trace the intellectual genealogy of management science in order to demonstrate that its scientific identity has been built through constant dialogue with several foundational disciplines: economics, sociology, psychology, law, ergonomics, and engineering. Far from being an epistemological weakness, this hybridity represents the very foundation of its historical development and its capacity to understand complex organizational phenomena. Through a historical overview of managerial thought, from Taylor and Fayol to contemporary approaches to complexity and collective action, this presentation will show how project management is today one of the most accomplished expressions of this interdisciplinarity. Inheriting from engineering science while integrating the contributions of organizational sociology, social psychology, and economics, project management emerges as a privileged laboratory for the convergence of managerial knowledge. The objective is twofold: on the one hand, to shed light on the intellectual history of management sciences; on the other hand, to show that the contemporary challenges of organizations (complexity, transversality, innovation, digital transformation) are reviving this fundamentally interdisciplinary vocation.

Keywords: History; Interdisciplinarity; Management Science; Syncretism; Syncrétisme; Science de Gestion; Interdisciplinarité; Histoire (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-05-29
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Published in 6e journée d’Histoire de la Pensée Managériale, IAE Paris; Institut de Recherche en Gestion (IRG); Institut d’Histoire et de Prospective du Management (IHPM), May 2026, Paris, France

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05637818

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