Professor Vukan Dešić as the founder of the department for scientific organisation of work: The jubilee of 70 years

Abstract

This overview paper first aims to outline and consolidate all the biographical facts available today in libraries and archives, and then list the teaching, scientific and professional contributions made by Professor Vukan Dešić during his fruitful life, such as: 1) his contribution to the development of higher education through performing the functions of a Vice-rector, Dean and Rector at the University of Belgrade and the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering; 2) his contribution to the development of railways as the general manager of the Yugoslav State Railways and assistant to the Minister of Railways, i.e. Transport; 3) the fact that, as early as in 1949, he developed the course in Scientific Organization of Work and founded the Department for scientific organization of work at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Belgrade exactly 70 years ago; 4)the fact that he is responsible for the establishment of the Faculty of Transport and Traffic Engineering, an initiator of the founding of the Faculty of Organizational Sciences and the Technical College of Mechanical Engineering; 5) his contribution to the development of scientific space as a head and/or founder of a large number of institutes and scientific associations (e.g. Centre for Multidisciplinary Studies, Yugoslav Society of Mechanics); 6)his numerous scientific and professional contributions of tremendous importance, with special emphasis on the fact that he is the founder of the contingent theory of organization, the creator of an innovative Complex Analytical Method, which seriously raised the level of organization of the Yugoslav companies at the time, the forerunner of the invention of Ishikawa, a serious critic of Taylor's contributions, who refuted the premises that Henry Town laid the foundations of management and organization.