A Study Of Management Mechanisms Of Military Enterprises In Late Qing Dynasty

As the inchoation of industrialization of modern China,The military enterprises in late Qing Dynasty not only played a great role in improving weapon equipments of the Qing army and stimulating the army's modernization,but also left important experiences and revelations in the practice of enterprise systems.Many students argue that the military enterprises were the most important ideological practice of the Westernization group,they did not completed the historical mission of "making the country rich and its military force efficient," largely because they pursued the governmental operation pattern,which led to disordered management and low efficiency,and violated economical laws.Therefore,system construction and management efficiency are the keys to this dissertation.It will contribute to objectively comprehend the military enterprises in Qing Dynasty,give them proper historical location,and evaluate anew the whole westernization movement and the process of industrialization.Moreover,it will promote the study of economic history and military history of this era.This dissertation summarizes previous studies and collects materials about management systems of the military enterprises.It explores organization systems,wage institutions, technical training mechanisms,technical transplantations,production institutions of the military enterprises,and outlines their entire management systems.It attempts to use the theoretical methods of relative realms,builds distinct visions,and probes into existing conclusions.This dissertation makes enterprise systems as study clue and explores various systems.It is divided into the following seven parts.The introduction makes reference to the backgrounds of establishment and development of the military enterprises,reviews former studies.On that basis,it puts forward the question consciousness and study approaches of this dissertation,and briefly presents its framework and chapters.Chapter one,based on organizational structures and managers,examines organization systems of the enterprises.With reference to organizational structures,it analyzes the hierarchy and efficiency of the enterprises.With regard to managers,it mainly explains their compositions,management and efficiency.The military enterprises were wholly lack of industrial basis,and they used and inherited western enterprise systems and management thought during their establishment.In a word,this chapter makes use of the theories of economics and management,comprehensively study the management systems of the military enterprises.Chapter two mainly discusses the wage systems of the military enterprises.It summarizes the characteristics of the wage systems of that day.It makes the wage systems of Foochow Dockyard as a case in point.Because there existed branch division of labor and different skills,the wage systems of the military enterprises should be variant.It is one of the important characteristic of modern management systems to make wage as a necessary means of regulating management.Chapter three chiefly examines management systems of the introduction and training of talents,i.e.the introduction of foreign talents and the training of domestic ones.By investigating the introduction modes and systems of foreign talents,it reasonably evaluates the historic role of foreign talents.They made great contributions to the enterprise development in the introduction and transformation of technology and production.They had some passive affects,but that was not the main problem.The training systems of enterprises were established to train domestic talents.The enterprises of that day had set up a set of systems of training talents.Under the help of foreign instructors,complete study links were established,from apprenticeship in workshops,education in school,to study abroad.They were not only distinct,but formed virtuous interaction.Domestic talents had an important part in the technological development and management of the enterprises.Chapter four analyzes the product introduction and production management of the military enterprises.It consults the development level of military products of that day in the West,study the process of the design,making and application of the military products, describes the development graph of the military enterprises,so intuitively and fully understands the modem military enterprises.Furthermore,it examines their production managements and systems from cost control and quality monitoring of the enterprises.There were negative factors of development,such as subjective errors in introduction and manufacture,objective restrictions of domestic industry conditions,unreason of management process and bad legislations.Chapter five studies the social predicaments and historical limitation which the military enterprises were faced with.The social predicaments consist of Conservative ideology, deficient governments,mismatching educational systems.This chapter also investigates reasons of social predicaments and historical limitations.The epilogue summarizes and deepens the main arguments of this dissertation.The management systems of military enterprises in late Qing Dynasty were the results of Western experiences and domestic traditions.They inherited Western advanced management experiences and Chinese traditionally culture advantages,but could not get rid of negative factors of domestic experiences.As the first amalgamation of the Eastern and Western management experiences,the management systems of the military enterprises were the more important examples in Chinese early industrialization.