The “Professional Mortality” Problem in Early City Management: A Study of Organized Denial

ABSTRACT The early city management profession experienced appalling rates of attrition. This problem of “professional mortality” had been clearly recognized by the end of World War I: causes of attrition included threats and violence against managers, intense political interference in managers' work, and interpersonal missteps. Yet the organized management profession and advocates of the manager plan actively ignored threats and were unwilling to respond collectively or officially to political interference; leading scholars recognized but did not publicly discuss common interpersonal problems faced by managers. This silence on the underlying causes of turnover marked an effort to protect the manager plan's viability in the face of growing electoral opposition during the 1920s, placing the interests of the profession above its practicing members. The optimistic, rationalist discourses of advocates, scholars, and professional leaders rested on self‐conscious denial of uncomfortable realities; a full historical accounting may help avoid repeating these mistakes.