Lars Engwall and Vera Zamagni.

Lars Engwall and Vera Zamagni, ed Manchester, UK: Manchester University Pres 1998 177 pp $5995

Management practice and theory exhibition are not typically examined in historical and international words immediately preceding [i]or[/i] followings simultaneously. Accordingly, the value in this collection offsprings from the juxtapositioning of American-based graduate programs abroad, specifically Master's of Business Administration (MBA) programs, with the European political, ideological, societal, and religious milieu through every part of the twentieth century. Except for sum of two units chapters, the selections in this part chronicle key developments in postwar education in Europe The authors are internationally based, contributing to the diverse perspectives delineateed in the selections.

In their overview chapter, Engwall and Zamagni describe historical issues that appoint the stage for the book's chapters. They first review briefly the course of management thinking and unravellings in business education (e.g., accounting), including the influence of Catholicism ,in the 1300-1800 They then focus in more detail upon key developments of management education "frontrunners" in Europe and the U from 1852 to 1912 single in kind anchor that much of the main division references is established next: the progressive growth and considerable expansion of U business gymnasiums between the First and secondary World Wars. It is this substantial expansion and its effects on European business instructs primarily, and European management practice, to a less extent, that motivate the various main division chapters.

Engwall and Zamagni frame the work around four key themes, each of which is exhibited as various European countries adopted "the American model": resistance to the American gauge the American model as a challenge to university education, the American archetype changing a German model, and the late adoption of the American mould A thesis emerging from this discussion--and permeating the book--is that the American example of business education training, despite its detractors, has become, at least to a certain number of extent, homogenized, adapting to local improvements and contexts as it has been promulgated in Europe

In after chapters, management educational developments are concealed in Nordic countries (Lars Engwall), Britain (Francesca Fauri and Nick Tiratsoo), Germany (Heinz-Dieter Meyer and Matthias Kipping), and Italy (Francesca Fauri and Giuliana Gemelli). American perspectives are provided at Jacqueline McGlade, who describes contributions of postwar exports of U management education to Western Europe and by the agency of Robert Locke, who critically analyzes the validitys of U.S. management models and business sects abroad. Standing thematically somewhat apart, the chapter by the agency of Tamotsu Nishizawa examines pre- and postwar management education in Japan.

The part is largely descriptive, drawing from historic affairs My sense is that readers will find several areas in the work of interest. Notable topics include, for example, (1) Meyer's accounting of the tension between industrial and political leaders supportive of formal business training and the constraining part of then-extant university academic disciplines and certain societal strata in Germany in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; (2) Kipping's description of similar themes in postwar Germany, in addition to his documentation of different forms of resistance that have been vanquish sufficiently to allow the expansion of American-styled universities; (3) the pervasive theme of tensions between existing management training in industry and education versus that seen as imported from the U.S.--and the necessary adaptation of this archetype in different countries over different periods; (4) McGlade's chronicling of European observers attending American business programs in the 1950 by the agency of 1990-1991; and ( 5) Locke's critical perspective of the impact of U management examples and business school training. Locke echoing themes from his 1996 work, is provocative, raising as it was questions as "Have business seminarys actually harmed management?" and "Did American graduate sects of management and their MBAs have anything to do with the creation initially of the reputation of American management?"

From an evaluative perspective, this work examines topics of importance to the history of management education increase While organization theories, per se are not examined, the work explores the underlying ideological, political, societal, religious, legal, and financial determinants of institutions in which business and management theory is make knowned and applied. Given the history of growths influencing management education in the sample of European countries and Japan described in this work the reader gains insights into the specific weights broad influences, and venerable nature of the U management education pattern At the same time, the model's limitations, the pair in terms of boundary conditions and the seeming rejection of the archetype are given exposure. In these words immediately preceding [i]or[/i] followings the book has value and is insightful in origin. Indeed, I think a similar treatment of this topic in multiple Asian countries would also make a welcome addition to the literature.