Professor Vukan Dešić as a founder of the department for scientific organization of work : the 70-year jubilee

Abstract

Although Professor Vukan Dešić’s brilliance is evidently important on a global scale, unfortunately, not much has been written about his biography and contribution to the scientific field so far, and thus not much is known, as stated by Janko Cvijanović in the text “A Tribute to Professor Vukan Dešić 1906-1975” published in 2011[8]. 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. Nowadays, it is extremely important to emphasize the relevance of the pioneering contributions of Professor Dešić, because there can be no bright future without respect for the past. Bearing in mind that Professor Dešić opened up the path into a deeper understanding of the scientific organization of work, at least in the European area, as a sign of gratitude to our founder, we write this paper and dedicate the 8th International Conference of Industrial Engineering – SIE 2022 to him, pointing out especially to the following contributions of our “teacher”: 1) his contribution to the development of higher education through performing the functions of the 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 fields 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, and a serious critic of Taylor’s contributions, who refuted the premises laid by Henry Town as the foundations of management and organization.