The Management and Expectations Survey (MES) is a voluntary survey of British firms launched in 2017 to gather information on the use of structured management practices for the reporting period of 2016. The MES sample was a subset of the sample for the Annual Business Survey (ABS) (UK Data Archive SN 7451) for the 2016  reporting period, to allow the datasets to be linked. Researchers must still access the ABS as normal through the users’ chosen data access platform.  This survey builds upon a previous ONS pilot survey examining management practices, the Management Practices Survey (MPS) (UK Data Archive SN 8182). Compared to the MPS, the MES has wider industry scope, including non‐manufacturing production and services industries; a larger sample size; an increase in the number of questions on management practices from 8 to 12; questions concerning managers and non‐managers separately.The survey is designed to produce data that can be compared with a subset of the data collected in: the MPS, the US Census Bureau’s Management and Organizational Practices Survey  (USMOPS) and the German Management and Organizational Practices Survey (GMOPS). The  MES is more closely aligned (with regards to management practice questions) to the USMOPS  and GMOPS than the MPS.  A second wave was launched in 2020 to gather information on the use of structured management practices for the reporting periods 2019 and 2020. The aim was to include as many businesses as possible that responded to the MES 2016 reference year for longitudinal analysis, and to the ABS 2019 reference year for productivity analysis, as well as randomly sampling from the Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR) to increase the sample size. The data for MES 2020 were collected from November 2020 until May 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic and two national lockdowns. Homeworking and pandemic questions were added as part of the MES 2020 questionnaire.A third wave was launched for the reporting period 2023. The sample consists of all IDBR firms with more than 250 employees, respondents of the previous MES waves, respondents of the latest ABS (2022) and a random stratified sample from the IDBR of firms with more than 10 employees.The MES 2023 questionnaire is based on the 2020 questionnaire, however with the addition of questions asking about management qualifications, learning and development, hiring practices and technology adoption such Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and Cloud computing. The data for the 2023 wave were collected between November 2023 and March 2024. Prior to 2023, the data coverage included Great Britain only, but beginning in 2023, coverage includes Northern Ireland to become UK-wide.Linking to other business studies These data contain Inter-Departmental Business Register (IDBR) reference numbers. These are anonymous but unique reference numbers assigned to business organisations. Their inclusion allows researchers to combine different business survey sources together. Researchers may consider applying for other business data to assist their research.Latest edition informationFor the fifth edition (April 2025), the 2020 data file has been revised and a data file for 2023 has been added. The documentation has been updated to include the third wave (2023). MES has a wider industry scope compared to previous surveys, including non‐manufacturing production and services industries; a larger sample size; an increase in the number of questions on management practices; and questions concerning managers and non‐managers separately. In addition to characteristics of the businesses such as region, employment size, SIC 2007 code, birth date, age and foreign ownership, the dataset contains the MES questions. From the answers on management practices, scores for each question have been computed, which combined following the scoring guidance, form the management practices section scores. In turn, the four section scores combined form the overall management score.