Towards Conceptual History of Management: The Language of the 1950s Textbooks in Finland

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to add to the emerging body of conceptual histories of management by undertaking a reading of three leading Finnish textbooks from the 1950s. Design: Management concepts are analysed through the linguistic dynamics of a set of historically situated Finnish textbooks. The semantic dimension of analysis is concerned with the conceptual structures behind particular linguistic constructions. The pragmatic dimension, on the other hand, is attuned to the speech act aspects of conceptual formations. Findings: The analysis shows that the current concept used for “management” in Finnish does not feature as the key word in the 1950s textbook articulations. Instead, concepts such as “business caretaking”, “administration”, “arranging” or “education” are employed to signify the reality of organizational and managerial structures and processes. Furthermore, the texts strove to legitimize management mainly in terms of the moral character of managers and the management process. Research implications: Conceptual histories of linguistically non-English contexts offer interesting contrasts to the dominant Anglo-American discourses of management and related phenomena. More empirical studies of conceptual history of management are needed. Originality: This article adds to the limited body of empirical investigations of conceptual history of management, organization and related issues.