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Management Gurus and Management Fashions
Since the 1980s, popular management thinkers, ‘gurus’, have promoted a number of performance improvement programs and management fashions which have greatly influenced both the everyday conduct of organizational life and the preoccupations of academic researchers. This book provides a rhetorical critique of the management guru and management fashion phenomenon, building on the important theoretical progress that has recently been made by a small, but growing band of management researchers. Fantasy theme analysis, a dramatically-based method of rhetorical criticism, is conducted to critique three of the most important management fashions to have emerged during the 1990 * the re-engineering movement promoted by Michael Hammer and James Champy
* the effectiveness movement led by Stephen Covey
* the learning organization movement inspired by Peter Senge and his colleagues. In addition to its rhetorical and empirical contributions, this book stimulates a much-needed critical dialogue between practitioners and academics on the sources of the underlying appeal of management gurus and management fashions, and their effect upon the quality of management and organizational learning.
* the effectiveness movement led by Stephen Covey
* the learning organization movement inspired by Peter Senge and his colleagues. In addition to its rhetorical and empirical contributions, this book stimulates a much-needed critical dialogue between practitioners and academics on the sources of the underlying appeal of management gurus and management fashions, and their effect upon the quality of management and organizational learning.
228 pages, Paperback
First published March 15, 2001
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April 9, 2017
Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.
Charles Mackay
Jackson offers in his book an analysis of the emergence and persistence of management gurus and the management fashions they promote. The author’s interest first arose while participating in an executive and management development program at his university, the University of Calgary. The book follows his Ph.D. dissertation on the same topic. He highlights three concerns emerging from the critical offensive of academic communities: the intellectually impoverished quality of the gurus’ thinking, the gap between the promise and practice when the gurus’ ideas are implemented, and the relatively poor manner in which organizations have used these ideas. Moreover, the author is concerned with the poor critical approach of gurus’ followers, and the mass irrationality the latter create, to the point of reaching a kind of cult of personality: “He must know what he’s talking about if so many people keep going to him,” says a seminar participant quoted by Jackson (2001: 94).
Jackson wrote a book that follows a traditional academic structure (i.e., it has marked methodological, literature review, result, discussion, and conclusions chapters). However, it aims at reaching different audiences, as he himself recognizes. However, I believe that he does not achieve this goal completely. Although the methodological and literature review chapters could be skipped by a practitioner that only wants to see the critical approach to each guru without major implications, he or she will probably be unmotivated by the book’s structure and language.
The book is divided in eight chapters, and uses a “dramatistic” approach. This is put forward through the use of a method called Fantasy Theme Analysis (FTA) which, as the author claims, had been used in rhetorical criticism before, but not within organization research. For this, the author finds it important to differentiate “fantasy” as an imaginary depiction from “fantasy” as the communal interpretation of a social reality. He claims that the FTA uses a well-known metaphor (i.e. theater), is based on a general and dynamic theoretical framework (i.e. Symbolic Convergence Theory – SCT), is well attuned to aesthetic and technical qualities of rhetoric, allows generalization, is analogous to other tools that have been used in management, and has no preferences over the different components of the analysis (e.g. gurus, consultant firms, business schools, mass media, and managers and organizations). Jackson recognizes that he was criticized by colleagues and reviewers for his weak argumentation defending his choices; some of them see it as a form of methodological pragmatism, a because-I-like-it-and-because-it-works kind of justification.
It is important to highlight that Jackson bases his study on the United States of America, which he claims is by far the largest market for management gurus and management fashions, an ever-growing industry amounting to billions of dollars every year. Jackson focuses on three objects of study to forward his analytical framework, three management gurus and the management fashions they promote: Michael Hammer and James Champy – The reengineering movement, Stephen Covey – The effectiveness movement, and Peter Senge – The learning organization. He devotes a chapter to analyzing each one of them by applying the dramatistic approach and, interestingly, making use of what he calls “master analogues” to contrast the three management fashions:
• The pragmatic master (reengineering), which argues that reengineering must be done
because there is essentially no other choice, it is a simple matter of personal survival.
• The righteous master (personal effectiveness), which underscores the moral way of doing
things in order to be effective and better relate to others.
• The social master (learning organization), which emphasizes the need of individuals to seek a
higher level of meaning and purpose in their work and in their workplaces. This is only
attained by working together for a common cause.
The book is an interesting effort to analyze the dynamics of management fads. The author, although showing weaknesses in defending his methodological choices, is intellectually honest and recognizes the researcher-dependent (vs. theory dependent) nature of the framework on which he bases his analysis (i.e. the SCT), and that he faces challenges to close the gap between academics and practitioners, something he aimed to achieve with this book.
Presently, Jackson continues to explore the relationship between leadership and governance practice, and the role of communication in strategic leadership as a professor at the School of Government of the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. After the publication of the book under review here, he continued to critically analyze the “business celebrities phenomenon,” and wrote several other books about the topic. Whether or not he has convinced his critics about the usefulness of his approach, there is something he highlighted that, even sixteen years after his work, not only continues to occupy scholars’ minds, but is a reflection of other aspects of public life in the United States. He highlights in the discussion chapter of his book that there are
two major fantasy types originating in the Puritan settlements of the New World that proven to be a remarkably resilient feature of American public discourse in the last years. The "restoration” fantasy type urges Americans to harken back to the perfect originally envisaged by the founding fathers. It has been traced by researchers in religious, political, and social movements and can be clearly seen in Michael and James Champy’s call to make America great again (bold not in the
(Jackson, 2001: 162).
Perhaps, support from historical/cultural studies would strengthen Jackson’s dramatistic approach, providing a deeper consideration of American values and culture, America’s obsession with businessmen, and its embeddedness in the foundations of America’s collective imaginaries. After all, Americans follow today yet another business celebrity and business-books writer. This time it is their president and, as other management gurus, he alluded to their Puritan past by inviting them to “make America great again” during his election campaign, something that Jackson probably saw coming.
Charles Mackay
Jackson offers in his book an analysis of the emergence and persistence of management gurus and the management fashions they promote. The author’s interest first arose while participating in an executive and management development program at his university, the University of Calgary. The book follows his Ph.D. dissertation on the same topic. He highlights three concerns emerging from the critical offensive of academic communities: the intellectually impoverished quality of the gurus’ thinking, the gap between the promise and practice when the gurus’ ideas are implemented, and the relatively poor manner in which organizations have used these ideas. Moreover, the author is concerned with the poor critical approach of gurus’ followers, and the mass irrationality the latter create, to the point of reaching a kind of cult of personality: “He must know what he’s talking about if so many people keep going to him,” says a seminar participant quoted by Jackson (2001: 94).
Jackson wrote a book that follows a traditional academic structure (i.e., it has marked methodological, literature review, result, discussion, and conclusions chapters). However, it aims at reaching different audiences, as he himself recognizes. However, I believe that he does not achieve this goal completely. Although the methodological and literature review chapters could be skipped by a practitioner that only wants to see the critical approach to each guru without major implications, he or she will probably be unmotivated by the book’s structure and language.
The book is divided in eight chapters, and uses a “dramatistic” approach. This is put forward through the use of a method called Fantasy Theme Analysis (FTA) which, as the author claims, had been used in rhetorical criticism before, but not within organization research. For this, the author finds it important to differentiate “fantasy” as an imaginary depiction from “fantasy” as the communal interpretation of a social reality. He claims that the FTA uses a well-known metaphor (i.e. theater), is based on a general and dynamic theoretical framework (i.e. Symbolic Convergence Theory – SCT), is well attuned to aesthetic and technical qualities of rhetoric, allows generalization, is analogous to other tools that have been used in management, and has no preferences over the different components of the analysis (e.g. gurus, consultant firms, business schools, mass media, and managers and organizations). Jackson recognizes that he was criticized by colleagues and reviewers for his weak argumentation defending his choices; some of them see it as a form of methodological pragmatism, a because-I-like-it-and-because-it-works kind of justification.
It is important to highlight that Jackson bases his study on the United States of America, which he claims is by far the largest market for management gurus and management fashions, an ever-growing industry amounting to billions of dollars every year. Jackson focuses on three objects of study to forward his analytical framework, three management gurus and the management fashions they promote: Michael Hammer and James Champy – The reengineering movement, Stephen Covey – The effectiveness movement, and Peter Senge – The learning organization. He devotes a chapter to analyzing each one of them by applying the dramatistic approach and, interestingly, making use of what he calls “master analogues” to contrast the three management fashions:
• The pragmatic master (reengineering), which argues that reengineering must be done
because there is essentially no other choice, it is a simple matter of personal survival.
• The righteous master (personal effectiveness), which underscores the moral way of doing
things in order to be effective and better relate to others.
• The social master (learning organization), which emphasizes the need of individuals to seek a
higher level of meaning and purpose in their work and in their workplaces. This is only
attained by working together for a common cause.
The book is an interesting effort to analyze the dynamics of management fads. The author, although showing weaknesses in defending his methodological choices, is intellectually honest and recognizes the researcher-dependent (vs. theory dependent) nature of the framework on which he bases his analysis (i.e. the SCT), and that he faces challenges to close the gap between academics and practitioners, something he aimed to achieve with this book.
Presently, Jackson continues to explore the relationship between leadership and governance practice, and the role of communication in strategic leadership as a professor at the School of Government of the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. After the publication of the book under review here, he continued to critically analyze the “business celebrities phenomenon,” and wrote several other books about the topic. Whether or not he has convinced his critics about the usefulness of his approach, there is something he highlighted that, even sixteen years after his work, not only continues to occupy scholars’ minds, but is a reflection of other aspects of public life in the United States. He highlights in the discussion chapter of his book that there are
two major fantasy types originating in the Puritan settlements of the New World that proven to be a remarkably resilient feature of American public discourse in the last years. The "restoration” fantasy type urges Americans to harken back to the perfect originally envisaged by the founding fathers. It has been traced by researchers in religious, political, and social movements and can be clearly seen in Michael and James Champy’s call to make America great again (bold not in the
(Jackson, 2001: 162).
Perhaps, support from historical/cultural studies would strengthen Jackson’s dramatistic approach, providing a deeper consideration of American values and culture, America’s obsession with businessmen, and its embeddedness in the foundations of America’s collective imaginaries. After all, Americans follow today yet another business celebrity and business-books writer. This time it is their president and, as other management gurus, he alluded to their Puritan past by inviting them to “make America great again” during his election campaign, something that Jackson probably saw coming.
Displaying 1 of 1 review