The Effect of Artificial Intelligence on Management Process: Challenges and Opportunities

Introduction

Management and leadership practices have been observed since the existence of humanity on the planet. The essence of management activities is the effective and efficient execution of the works. Peter F. Drucker (1986, p. 36, 2018, p. 3) defined effectiveness as “doing the right thing” and efficiency as “doing things right” (Peter F.Drucker, 1986, p. 36). For example, in hunter-gathering and agricultural societies, those who know how to do things and manage resources efficiently can be the leaders of the group (Bracker, 2012, p. 219). Technical knowledge and management skills, in particular, are considered prerequisites for becoming a manager in ancient societies (Malinowski, 1960, p. 191). There is no point in assuming that managerial skills were not used to build the Egyptian pyramids or Machu Picchu in Peru thousands of years ago. MB.C. In 400, Socrates defined management as a skill separate from technical knowledge and experience. Plato also described management as a separate art and emphasized the necessity of the principles of expertise (Pindur, Rogers, & Kim, 2013, p. 59).

However, the concept of professional management emerged with the industrial revolution. After using the machines in the manufacturing process and gathering large groups of people in the workplace, certain levels of management were needed. When the production system in the form of handicrafts in small workshops turned into mass production with machines and people's cooperation, things became complicated. As a result, planning, organizing and influencing people came to the fore in these manufacturing factories (Pindur et al., 2013, p. 60).

The first applications of management science are called classical management movement and are divided into two main groups as scientific management and general administrative theory (Robbins & Coulter, 2002). While the scientific management focused on productivity, the General Administrative theory admitted the organization as a whole and focused on how to make this complex structure effective and efficient (Pindur et al., 2013, p. 60). In his speech to governors, Theodore Roosevelt, the president of the United States, emphasized that the issue of national productivity is more than a waste of natural resources. About this speech, Frederick Winslow Taylor, the founder of Scientific theory, argued that the greatest lack of national efficiency is due to the inefficient act of human which is an intangible asset of industry. Therefore, he argued that competition and prosperity would be ensured by the efficient working of the machine and the people together and he focused on finding the best way to achieve this (Taylor, 1913).

General management theory was an effort to develop a wider theory of management functions and is considered the pioneer of modern organizational theory. H.Fayol (1949) divided the activities of enterprises into six main groups: technical, commercial, financial, security, accounting, and management. He stated that the first five of these activities are well known in the industry but the management activity should be explained and discussed in detail. Eventually, he defined management functions as to forecast, to plan, to organize, to command, to co-ordinate and to control. Besides emphasizing efficiency and regulation of the works, he stated that it is one of the most important tasks of the management to determine the direction of the organization by predicting the future (Fayol, 1949).