After the Second World War several government committees and many occupational organisations in the UK were involved in efforts to develop education for management. This article will trace and analyse the actions of two of these actors. The Committee on Education for Management, chaired by Lyndall Urwick, wished to unite the myriad training schemes offered by numerous ‘professional’ associations into a general management education curriculum. But these associations, including the Office Management Association, resisted Urwick’s attempts to forge a general management curriculum because they sought to maintain control of entry into their occupational groups.
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