Collection: Lecture Conferences

In April 1918 a conference of employers was held at Woodbrooke (Birmingham) organised and largely attended by Quakers. Various authors have discussed the underlying precepts of the Society of Friends, a main one being “that the function of industry should be to serve the community as a whole” (Childs, 1964 p.295). Other more recent commentators on the conference include Tibbals (2019) argues ‘although the meetings had ambitions of bringing about new ways of organising business, it was the more moderate reformers who had a stake in the issue, such as Seebohm Rowntree, were the ones most able to effect changes’ (p.73). Similarly, Urwick (1938 p.52) concludes that this conference highlighted the difficulties in passing this concept ‘on to the managers and foremen who were directly in contact with the rank and file’ workers. By 1919 Rowntree, another prominent Quaker took the initiative and wrote to the Manchester Guardian telling the editor of his intention to hold a conference in April 1919 at Scarborough entitled ‘Lecture School for Works Managers, Foremen and Forewomen. In the introduction to the meeting Arnold S. Rowntree states ‘The genesis of this Scarborough Lecture School is to be found in a Report of a Conference of Employers held at Woodbrooke in 1918’ (see Lecture Conference 1919). The more conferences were held in 1919 a further six in 1920 and four in 1921 along with three in 1922. As can be seen in this database we have been unable to trace all of these early meetings. The figures given here are based on Urwick’s (1938) paper. The intention of these meetings was in part encapsulated in the talk given by Dempster Smith on ‘The Functions of Works Managers and Foremen in the Past and in the Future’. Urwick (1938) argues that ‘whilst the conferences were organised primarily from a human standpoint, they had a definitely management tinge from the beginning’ (p.52). In the 10 conferences that took place between 1926 and 1930 Urwick estimates that the average number of firms attending was 48. The conferences were organised by Rowntree without any formal Committee or council, initially via personal invitations from Rowntree himself. The operation itself was based on the organisational skills of Rowntree’s secretary, F.D. Stuart.

The meetings continued in this way until 1935 when control and organisation was passed to the Confederation of Management Associations and the reports on the Conferences were published in the British Management Review. This change over is significant in the fact it represented the growth and amalgamation of a number of key associates that formed in 1935. The Confederation of Management Associations. Child (1969) in his early history of British Management outlines the growth of numerous association starting with the Sales Management Association in 1911, followed by the Welfare Workers Association in 1913. The latter became increasingly identified with management issues and in 1931 adopted the title Institute of Labour Management and in the same year the Works Managers Association was formed. The bringing together of these different associations is attributed to R. Pugh by Urwick (1938) The newly formed Confederation of Management Associations comprising the Purchasing Officers Association, Works Management Association and the Office Management Association. Clearly, this was the natural organisation to continue with the Rowntree management conferences. The details of these conferences held by The Confederation of British Management Associations are given in the editorials of the respective volumes of the British Management Review. These provide a partial insight into the conferences and act as a guide to their organisation in the late 1930s. For example, the British Management Review IV No 3 1940 covers the 40th Oxford Confer4ence held at Lady Margaret Hall in the Spring (April) 1939 between the Munich Crisis and the outbreak of the WWII. We are told by the Editor ‘It was a large conference made up of company managers (who were acutely sensible of grave imminent responsibilities’ (p.4) The same editorial (1940) tell us that the 41st Conference arranged for September 1939 was postponed until January 1940. It was held in Holywell Manor (Oxford). The Conference was described as a small intimate one, with the delegates going into Committees to examine the issues necessitated by the state control of industry. The aim was to prepare the ground for the 42nd Conference which was held at Lady Margaret Hall. It was described by the Editor as one of the largest and most important meetings of the whole series.