Yea, especially when some of our earliest texts are of managers. More accurate might be "earliest civilization in which we can find a wide breadth of insight into justification, rationale, and advice for managing a labor force. What have we learned since then?"

EDIT: Hell, one of the earliest hallmarks of "civilization" is social stratification. I'm betting people have been theorizing about how to use human labor (subjugated or otherwise compelled) far before the written word came about.