Against Management: Organization in the Age of Managerialism

by Martin Parker

Against Management argues that management is increasingly being seen as a problem, and not a solution. Martin Parker argues that managing is not the only way to organize and that managerialism is a global form of ideology, which is being used to justify considerable cruelty and inequality. He also suggests that, in a variety of places, an odd collection of people seem to be coming to similar conclusions. It is possible to identify cracks in the religion of managerialism as some of its converts begin to lapse and others intensify their protest. In order to illustrate his argument, Parker draws from a wide variety of sources – anti-corporate activism; books and films which use management as their backdrop; the movement for business ethics and corporate social responsibility; as well as critical management studies and general social theories of the present. Parker's overall argument is that we can see the beginnings of a cultural shift in the image of management and that this is a significant historical change. Perhaps most importantly, it opens up the possibility of exploring non-managerial alternatives to contemporary assumptions about organizing. Against Management deliberately attempts to blur the boundaries between academic and popular writing, and encourages some radical questioning of the common sense that tells us that we need management, managers and management schools. This will be essential reading for second-year undergraduates and above in business and management studies (including MBA), sociology and cultural studies.

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[Benjamin Fasching-Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved the author's For Business Ethics and had been meaning to tackle this one since it came out over 10 years ago. Parker describes several mostly unconnected critiques of managerialism or management ideology ... the idea that bad management is solved by good management or more management and the inability to consider alternative forms of organization. Chapters about academic and business press criticisms of bureaucracy, so-called "business ethics" and "corporate social responsibility," that strange academic phenomenon called "critical management studies" (for example Critical Management Studies), a trend in movies and popular culture where corporations are the bad guys (most of the examples are from the 1990s), and finally the anti-globalization movements all gave me something to chew on but mainly confirmed opinions I already had. The author knows that most people have already made up their minds and predicts how different constituencies will react. The final chapter, "For Organization," is the most lively, and Parker points towards anarchism, feminist utopias, cooperatives, the situationists, and the original utopian communities like Owen, Fourier and Saint-Simon.

It's that final chapter that really sets this book apart, because most anti-capitalist rants from the academy end in a no-alternative hopelessness or worse, an "it's alright because we're having so much fun reading revolutionary meaning into the crap we consume" argument and Parker doesn't do that. He's saying that something can be done, and that people are doing it, and he suggests we go hook up with those activists. So right on! Let's go!

[Angelmae · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's very academically written which such a subject deserves. I'm struggling through it because it's a subject that deserves genuine thought and analysis in our time. But it's not easy.