From conflict to collaboration? Contrasts and convergence in the development of nursing and management theory

This is the first of two papers which examine the development of theory in the occupations of management and nursing, in order to determine where the similarities and differences lie.

The need for the Health Service to be effectively managed was a prominent feature of UK health policy in the 1980s and early 1990s and accounts of the introduction of 'management methods' into health care tend to focus on the conflict between management and nursing. More recently, however, the policy emphasis has shifted towards collaborative and co-operative approaches to the provision of health care.

An examination of the development of nursing is conducted as the first step in identifying areas of contrast and convergence in the development of nursing and managerial ideologies. In the second paper a similar approach is taken to the history of management.

Nursing has been subject to a succession of ideologies aimed at advancing practice, however, many of these approaches have been accepted in an uncritical way. In the second paper the similarities in the development of management thought are examined and the implications this has for nursing management explored.