Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters in this book. The book presents the expansion of management as an idea and practice from a time when it was limited to churches and households to its current ubiquity, focusing in particular on the role of business schools, consultants, and business media in this process. It traces the rise of the authorities and the concurrent expansion of management. This core is structured in a way that allows what could be called modular reading. The book discusses recent literature, it draws attention to a different set of actors, in particular business schools, management consultants, and business publications. The historical narrative is subdivided into four parts, with the two World Wars and the 1980s, when most of the globe was opened to capitalism, providing important transitional and transformational periods with respect to all three authorities.