THE EDUCATIONAL PROFILES OF MANAGEMENT IN TWO BRITISH IRON AND STEEL COMPANIES WITH SOME COMPARISONS, NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL1
| Date | 01 March 1966 |
| Author | P. W. Musgrave |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.1966.tb00927.x |
| Published date | 01 March 1966 |
THE EDUCATIONAL PROFILES
OF
MANAGEMENT
IN
TWO BRITISH IRON AND STEEL COMPANIES
WITH
SOME
COMPARISONS, NATIONAL
AND
INTERNATIONAL1
P.
W.
MUSGRAVE*
THE
connections between the economy and education have become the
centre of much attention. One major line of investigation has concentrated
on the fact that many managers in modern industry can only accomplish
what is required of them if they have
a
considerable knowledge of science.
The surveys of C.
F.
Carter and B. R. Williams, published between
1957
and
1959,
exemplify this approach; these authors traced out
a
clear link
between
a
lack of innovation at company level and
a
low stress on scientific
knowledge.2 One result of the realization of this link between the economy
and education has been the greatly increased demand for managers with
formal qualifications at all levels in pure and applied science.
A second focus has been the general supply of educated manpower to
the labour force. In this second approach the stress is on all formal qualifica-
tions, since the economy today seems to demand manpower not merely
with scientific, but with all types of academic qualifications. The economic
reasoning that underlies this second approach turns largely on the growth
of the administrative sector of the labour force due to the greater com-
plexity
of
industrial and commercial management in the large-scale units
that are becoming increasingly common.3 A supply of managers is needed
who have the ability to make decisions where balance and judgement are
necessary and who have a knowledge of contemporary economic and
social problems. It is generally assumed that
a
training in the arts and
social science faculties of universities will equip men with these qualities
;
similar education of
a
shorter duration suffices at lower levels of manage-
ment. One of the results of this second way of considering the link between
academic education and the economy is that many large companies follow
the policy of recruiting the majority of their potential senior managers
from graduates with degrees in the arts and the social sciences
as
well
as
*
Lecturer in Sociology, University of Aberdeen
1
I
wish
to thank Prof.
J.
S.
G.
Wilson
of
Hull University for criticism of
an
earlier version
of
this paper and
also
Norman Dennis for some chance remarks durina one
of
Professor Rex’s
Wed%day evening seminars at Durham University.
C.
F.
Carter and
B.
R.
Williams,
Industry and Technical
Progresl,
1957;
Investment in Innovation,
1958;
Science and Industry,
1959
(all Oxford U.P.)
3
The
work
of
F.
H. Harbison and his associates is revelant here. See,
for
instance,
F.
H.
Harbison and others, ‘Steel Management on
Two
Continents’,
Munagmvnt
Science,
October
1955,
and
S.
E.
Hill and
F.
H.
Harbison,
Manpower and Innovationin
American
Industry,
(Princeton
U.P.
1959),
esp. Ch.
5
-
10
I
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