The Society was created on the ideal that the discipline of management in its true sense should surely be more inclusive and further developed when the research scope is enlarged, and its methodology, consciousness, and areas of research are diversified. In the process of realizing this ideal, "What is the discipline of management?" by which is meant, "What is the history of management theories?" must be thoughtfully researched, as history illuminates both the present itself and the future.

 Therefore, the Society decided to publish a commemorative Encyclopedia for its tenth anniversary. The Society desires to give all scholars the opportunity to study various aspects in the field of the history of Management Theories and to stimulate people's interests in the field. Currently, all our energy and efforts are concentrated on this special activity. The results are expected to become the foundation for further development of the history of Management Theories.

 By inquiring into the history of Management Theories, we hope to contribute to the development of management as a veracious discipline through explicating the progressive course of management history in the past hundred years. Furthermore, the discipline of management is connected with other sciences and technologies. It has also developed under the inseparable relationship between theory and practice, by which the civilized world has developed into an industrial and information-oriented society. Thus, the study of the history of Management Theories ought to create and broaden horizons, and must surely look into the nature of various phases of civilization in the 21st Century.

 We, therefore, have not published a mere dictionary of the history of science or theories, but an encyclopedia affording perspectives of research and an explanation of technical terms in the history of Management Theories.

 The Encyclopedia is divided into four parts:

Part I. The significance and methodology of studying the history of management theories

Part II. Development in the study of management theory by country (Germany, the U.S.A., the U.K., Japan, and the Soviet Union/Russia) and by subject matter (the theory of business enterprise, the theory of organizations, and the theory of functional management, among others.)

Part III. Bibliography of the discipline of management (basic items, and significant books / classics / basic documents of the discipline of management)

Part IV. References to prominent scholars in management practices and theories