The Origins ofWorkforce Planning
James W. Walker
AS EARLY AS 1890, in Principles of Economics, economist Alfred Marshall was calling for the analysis and planning for labor needs in organizations. As a founder of neoclassic economics, he brought supply and demand, marginal utility, and costs of production into a coherent whole.
However, while I was conducting research as a graduate student in the 1960s, I found few advances in research or practice in what was then called manpower planning over the decades that followed the publication of Marshall’s book. Military organizations, defense contractors, and oil companies managed their high talent staffing rigorously, but most business organizations focused on their talent requirements in a limited ...
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