The Heritage of the Past – A Referential Inspiration or an Abuse of Interpretation?

In this report inspired by the conference, we raise a question of how much the works of Karol Adamiecki – so innovative one century ago – constitute an inspiration for widening the areas of contemporary research or whether they become a subject of interpretation that goes beyond the borders of credibility. Referring to the presentations, this dilemma may be perceived in the following way. 1) Reference to the works of the past exists permanently in contemporary science of management, being in this case the reference to Adamiecki’s harmonisation of labour which manifests in various proposals and research regarding organisational processes management. This inspiration has never been questioned. 2) Other authors, carried by a creative vein of interpretation, went further as they saw in Adamiecki’s work the basis for formulating projections which had been actually lacking in the creation of this management science classic. These brilliant proposals raise, however, questions concerning their legitimacy and the decisive criterion allowing one to accept them should be, as it seems to us, only the scientific reliability of the author of the interpretation.