Although concepts of management can be traced back more than 5000 years, classical management theory is viewed as having emerged with the industrial revolution.

For example the division of labor was Adam Smith’s application of specialization to manufacturing.

Division of labor is the specialization of cooperative labor in specific, circumscribed tasks and roles, intended to increase the productivity of labor. Historically the growth of a more and more complex division of labor is closely associated with the growth of total output and trade, the rise of capitalism, and of the complexity of industrialization processes. Later, the division of labor reached the level of a scientifically-based management practice with the time and motion studies associated with Taylor ism.

The productivity gains of the division of labor are important within any type of production process, ranging from pin manufacture to software production to legal practice and medical care.

The division of labor makes trade necessary and is the source of economic interdependence.

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