ABSTRACT
When the original edition of Management Gurus was published by Routledge in 1993, it was the first attempt to provide a historical analysis of the leading ideas in management thought and practice, and to account for their popularity. Its publication came at an auspicious moment in the development of management as a distinct body of thought. From the end of the Second World War, the availability of guidance on how to manage had begun to increase as the number of training courses run and, in particular, the number of books published, rose. The 1960s saw the establishment of the first, specially-created business schools in the United Kingdom offering MBA programmes, while the existing universities (and also the then polytechnics) increased their own provision of diplomas and degree programmes in administration, business and management. In the 1970s, the industry training boards were influential. Their remit was to increase the number of trained staffof all kinds, including supervisors and managers. The 1980s saw the continued popularity and expansion of MBA programmes, but that decade and the next will probably be most closely associated with the rise of the management guru as yet another, and a significant, source of advice for managers.
