personal finance In commenting on the short history of the interest shown by business in the training of managers, it is foolish to pretend that no large organizations have existed in the past without studying and in some way solving the problem of training its future leaders : the problem has faced man since his settlement into agricultural civilizations made large organizations possible. The student of management literature might well start with Plato and Aristotle! The armed forces, the civil services, and the great religious organizations have all evolved their particular solutions to the problem, and business can look at their solutions with profit. ะก But the purposes of these other organizations are very different from those of business, which must work out its own methods. It is relevant to survey the history of the development of training methods, and then to review their present elaboration in Great Britain and abroad. The present phase of intense interest by business in training started during the last war when the heavy demands made by the expanding factories on management experience were first felt by the shop floor supervision and this most urgent of the day's needs was met by the 'Training Within Industry' (T.W.I.) schemes. First developed in the U.S.A., the schemes were later introduced into British industry; their purpose was a limited one of giving first aid to the foreman in three of his responsibilities Job Methods, Job Relations, and Job Instructions. Within their limits they have stood the test of time well, but they have been somewhat unjustly criticized for superficiality and misdirection. 'It's my boss who ought to be on this course, not me!' was the grumble that reechoed round the canteens and conference rooms of British factories. Indeed, perhaps the real theme of the history of management training has been the gradual raising of the level at which training schemes have been directed, until the realization dawned at the topmost level that this is where the training is needed most. When the definitive history of management training comes to be written, an honoured place must be given to the foreman, who suffered its impact first, and tried his best to profit from it. Accompanying the steady raising of the level of manager trained has been a shift from training in the practical tools and methods immediately of use on the shop floor to training in the principles of management and thence to an emphasis on the personal development of the individual manager. Thus the very brief and elementary T.W.I, courses were succeeded by longer courses on time study and work study, after which the repertoire was enlarged to include costing and general accounting practice, and other management functions, such as personnel practice, marketing, and 178 The Business of Management production control. personal finance