JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. This paper holds that the Du Pont Company has been one of the earliest and most important contributors to the advancement of systematic management. The development of this concept is traced through different stages of management-"Caesar," successorship, nonconformist, and adaptive management-beginning at the plant level of Repauno Chemical and Eastern Dynamite and rising ultimately to the administration of the entire Du Pont organization. The paper also examines the conditions of success of top-management group work at Du Pont. It finds that these conditions seem to be the result of a felicitous combination of a rationalist approach and a pragmatic approach, carried out by a carefully selected group of men.'Mr. Dale is associate professor in the Graduate School of Business and Public Administration, Cornell University. BEFORE and during the years of Frederick W. Taylor's principal work on scientific management, the Du Pont organization, quite independently, introduced many management techniques and skills that were original contributions. Unlike Taylor, Du Pont systematized management not only in technical matters at the fore-"The author is deeply indebted to John Lee Pratt for suggesting that this study be undertaken, for encouraging it, and for helping at every stage. Much gratitude is owed to Lammot du Pont Copeland, who gave access to many of the original documents and helpfully reviewed the manuscript at several stages. The author appreciates the access to the reminiscences and experiences of the late Pierre S. du Pont, Irenee du Pont, Donaldson Brown, W. S. Carpenter, Jr., W. F. Harrington, This content downloaded from 188.72.96.81 on Wed, 11 Jun 2014 06:33:44 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions ,26 ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCE QUARTERLYman's level but particularly at top levels. In the process, the company developed a group of men who created the largest and most successful chemical company in the world. It also provided some of the key men who helped to make General Motors the world's largest automobile company. And over the last twenty-five years the skills of management developed at Du Pont and General Motors have been adopted by many other companies.
CAESAR MANAGEMENTThe beginnings of systematic management at Du Pont can be traced in large part to the company's attempt to solve the problems of succession that arose when General Henry du Pont died, and it became necessary to substitute system for the "Caesar" type of managementsProbably more than any of his predecessors, General Henry was responsible for the dominant position of Du Pont as the greatest explosives manufacturer in 1889. Starting in 1850, after sixteen years as a powder maker, this son of the compan...
