The 'layering' of management in postwar Britain: the case of the Office Management Association

Abstract

The mid-twentieth century saw the creation of layers of managerial jobs in Britain. The increasing numbers of managers and a persistent degree of social closure at the top of organisational hierarchies led groups of managers to try to define specialist management functions as justification for holding organisational power. The Office Management Association was one such group. It promoted office managers' expertise in the efficient running of the administrative side of enterprises as a specialist managerial function worthy of a high place in managerial hierarchies. But specialisation was also fragmentation that would weaken the entire occupational group of all managers.