The changing role of the government in the Dutch knowledge community of management issues in the period 1945-2000

In this paper, we argue that the role of the Dutch State has been (a) significant in the spread of management knowledge in the Dutch management community but (b) changed dramatically during the nineteen eighties. After the World War II, the Dutch government played an important role in the development of an institutionalized network to spread management knowledge through the management community. The government stimulated the introduction of new ideas by assisting in the development of different new institutions. In the nineteen eighties, however, the position of the government changed dramatically. Its role as distributor of knowledge disappeared almost completely and was taken over by consulting agencies, commercial publisher, and conference organizers. Besides the decreasing role as distributor, the government also changed its own interest. More and more, government agencies started to use management knowledge themselves and turned into one of the largest users in the Netherlands.