Karol Adamiecki and the Historiographical Paradox of the Origin of Management

This article is an example of using the historical approach in management. In his analysis the author introduces the concept of “organizational reminding”. It is meant to encompass practices that aim to minimize single loop forgetting and values that pertain to what Monika Kostera identified as a double loop forgetting. Popularized by Wallace Clark, the chart was used as the foundation on which the development of the ‘productivity movement’ in Europe was based. The role the chart played was indirectly suggested in 1972 by Daniel A. Wren. In Europe, the movement was treated as originating from the US in spite of the fact that in Poland Karol Adamiecki was involved in developing a similar management tool. The Polish engineer improved Taylor’s effectiveness strategy by supplementing it with the concept of harmonization. Adamiecki’s study offered a chance of elaborating a more sustainable management program than that put forward by Taylor and his followers. Based on the research into the Polish press from the first decades of the twentieth century, the author shows that the historical paradox dealt with in the article was of a historiographical nature. Researchers have forgotten the role Adamiecki and those with whom he worked played in the development of management ideas in Europe