Re-imagining management education in post-WWII Britain: Views from government and business

Abstract

This paper explores the role of government and business in establishing two business schools in Britain in the 1960s. Partly in response to the Robbins Report of 1963, business leaders and politicians re-imagined management education and formed a new type of management education institution to operate alongside and ultimately compete a variety of other methods of management preparation. These two groups collaborated to create the London Graduate School of Business and Manchester Business School as national centers of excellence for management education. Using both archival and published sources, the paper’s contribution is to analyze perspectives expressed by businesspeople and political advocates involved with the business school project. It concludes that these advocates sought to create a body of educated, productive, yet socially-minded managers to lead Britain forward into the next phase of its economic development.