Making history critical : Recasting a history of the “management” of the British National Health Service

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore a possible discursive history of National Health Service (NHS) “management” (with management, for reasons that will become evident, very much in scare quotes). Such a history is offered as a complement, as well as a counterpoint, to the more traditional approaches that have already been taken to the history of the issue. Design/methodology/approach Document analysis and interviews with UK NHS trust chief executives. Findings After explicating the assumptions of the method it suggests, through a range of empirical sources that the NHS has undergone an era of administration, an era of management and an era of leadership. Research limitations/implications The paper enables a recasting of the history of the NHS; in particular, the potential for such a discursive history to highlight the interests supported and denied by different representational practices. Practical implications Today’s so-called leaders are leaders because of conventional representational practices – not because of some essence about what they really are. Social implications New ideas about the nature of management. Originality/value The value of thinking in terms of what language does – rather than what it might represent.