What Makes Research Possible? The Management Studies Research Division at the London School of Economics

Abstract

Purpose – The paper examines a scarcely known research initiative, the Management Studies Research Division (MSRD), established at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1964, but moribund by 1972.

Design/methodology/approach - The paper seeks to identify the conditions of possibility that facilitated the MSRD’s emergence and ultimately led to its failure.

Findings – In the early 1960s, a growing social and political awareness of the importance of good management, combined with the availability of both public and private funding, encouraged management research in the UK. The MSRD had some institutional support at the LSE, but it also needed a “champion” to set it up, raise money and manage the unit. This champion was Harold C. Edey, Professor of Accounting at the LSE. Difficulties in finding and retaining good management researchers, when many universities were developing business and management teaching and research, inhibited the MSRD’s survival.

Research limitations/implications – Although the paper studies a single management research unit, it identifies conditions of possibility for management research to take off and thrive, or otherwise, that are likely to be relevant for other times and places.

Originality/value – The paper describes a largely unknown episode in the development of management research in the UK, and proposes various factors as helping to explain both the success and the ultimate failure of a management research initiative.

Keywords: conditions of possibility, counterfactuals, hospital management, human relations, management research, operational research

JEL Classification: I20, M10, M41