If business executives already have too much to read, what can be the justification for offering them still more? One answer to this compelling question is that this series has been so designed that it should help the busy manager to short circuit the literature and still arrive at a developed and informed stage of self improvement, assuming that he believes that such a course is necessary.
There have been numerous books published on general management principles and practice, and the repetition from one book to the next has, not unnaturally, been considerable. At the same time, each book of any merit has carried management understanding a step further. In this series the aim has been to place before the management student (and he need not necessarily be undergoing a formal course of study) a profile of management thought and practice in the past half century, during which economic thinking has matured and management theorising has been trying out its first few stumbling paces.
For historical reasons there has been much more activity in management studies in the United States than in Europe, and consequently the literature, especially for the English speaking countries, has been dominated by American writers. A great deal of what they have had to offer has been of immense value, but nevertheless the approach has not always been appropriate to the British industrial and commercial scene. In recent years, therefore, British managers have welcomed the emergence of a management literature in their own country, which is more directly suited to their needs, and it is the hope and expectation of the editor and authors of this series that it will take its place alongside the existing material, and supplement it in a useful way.
Each contribution to the Studies in Management series is planned to be comprehensive and analytical, surveying the particular field of study, commenting helpfully upon it and, where possible, offering dispassionate judgements. As far as management studies can be comprehended in separate compartments these books will attempt, to initiate the newcomer and refresh the veteran, beginning with organization theory, which has had a complex and involved development, moving on to management principles and their application, to industrial sociology, industrial relations and other well defined areas of study.
At this juncture in the shaping of management studies, textbooks intended to provide short cuts for the examinee may not be merely premature but positively misleading. It has been assumed that what is most needed is a reasonably brief, readable, and reliable account of what has been written, said or done, and to what point this thought and application has brought the practising manager on his long road to ‘professionalism’.
Management studies is not at a crossroads. In its present state it is more apt to say that it has reached a roundabout off which there are many roads. Perhaps this series can supply a few fingerposts.
ANDREW ROBERTSON