Course number

G-ECON31 6A623 LE44 G-ECON31 6A623 LE38 G-ECON31 6A623 LE43

Course title(and course Multiple Perspectives on Management
title inEnglish)

Multiple Perspectives on Management

Target year

Instructor's
name, job title,and departmentof affiliation

1st year students or above Number of credits 1Days and periods Intensive

Class style

LectureGraduate School of Economics
Professor,KUROSAWA TAKAFUMI

SecondYear/semesters 2023/Intensive,semester

Language of instruction English[Overview and purpose of the course]【This course is an international collaborative course that is being offered by GSE professors in collaboration
with Prof. Matthias Kipping (Professor of Policy [Business Strategy] at Schulich School of Business, YorkUniversity, Toronto). If you are registered in the Top Global Course certificate program, a minimum of two
credits from such course is one of the requirements for obtaining the certificate.】****************
Today "management" and "manager" are probably some of the most frequently used terms when describing
structured/organized human interaction and are no longer confined to the world of business but cover a widevariety of spheres of activity. This course attempts to provide an overview over how and why "management"
has become so widely used as a term and as a concept. Rather than imposing a single vision of management,
the course looks critically at different ways to examine this important phenomenon and its expansion overtime and space (drawing on research by the instructor and many others). Students are expected to (i) do some
preparatory readings, (ii) participate actively in class discussions, and (iii) prepare a presentation to sharesome basic research about a management idea/fashion/practice.
[Course objectives]The course aims to give students a concise but comprehensive overview of what "management" means andhow it became so important. More specifically, it tries to:- familiarize participants with a wide range of perspectives on "management"(drawing on the latest findings
from the relevant research);- get them to understand the main questions as well as assumptions adopted by these different perspectives;- make them realize how views within each perspective have changed over time and findings continue to bedebated.
The course also aims to help students further their own research-related skills, namely developing their abilityto:- identify and reproduce the main arguments from different authors;- critically evaluate the basic assumptions and research methods used by these authors;- conduct basic research and present its results in a clear and concise way.
[Course schedule and contents]
This course will be offered in the form of an intensive lecture over four weeks over 30 days class period set
between November 23rd and December 21st . The specific dates and times for these 30 days will beannounced in Kulasis and PandA by October 1.
Contents:
1. Defining management
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Multiple Perspectives on Management(2)Explores the linguistic terms "management"and "manager" and their evolution over time and space.
Preparation: Find formal definitions of both terms in English and equivalents in your own language (ifdifferent from English)
Background reading: Chapters 1 and 2 in Engwall et al. (2016)
2. Management as a practice
Provides an overview of the research on the evolution of management as being contingent on the changing
forms of organizations from the unitary (or U) to the multidivisional (or M) and network (or N-) form,drawing on the work of Chandler and others.
Preparation: Read this brief note on Alfred Chandler (https://www.economist.com/node/13474552/print)
Background readings: Whittington et al. (1999); Kay (2002); Langlois (2004)
3. Management as an idea
Introduces the literature on the history of management and management thought and discusses to what extent
the historical development of management ideas is seen as progress or not and why.
Preparation: Read Some half-truths of management"; (http://www.mintzberg.org/blog/half-truthsmanagement)
Background readings: Barley and Kunda (1992); Stewart (2006); Kiechel (2012)
4. Management as a "fashion"
Looks at the recent research on the rapid succession of management fashions or "fads" and how these wereidentified and traced. Also shows how a small number of cases have been used to illustrate different
management principles over time.
Preparation: Read at least ONE of "The 8 Stupidest Management Fads of All Time"(https://www.cbsnews.
com/news/the-8-stupidest-management-fads-of-all-time/)
Background readings: Abrahamson (1996); Mair (1999)
5. Authorities on management
Examines in more detail the "fashion setting communities", i.e. the main actors that promote and disseminate
management ideas and practices, namely business schools, consultants and media, and how they obtained
their own legitimacy and expanded internationally.
Preparation: Read "Do McKinsey services deserve high fees?" (http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2016/07/123_210388.html#)
Background readings: Chapters 3 and 16 in Engwall et al. (2016)
6. Managers as a social group/elite/class
Surveys the studies that have looked at management beyond single organizations in terms of their broader
economic, societal and cultural influence and power and discusses whether managers are a self-reproducing
elite and might be considered a "class".
Preparation: Read "'Managerial elite' immobilising Ireland" (https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/
managerial-elite-immobilising-ireland-26640690.html)
Background readings: Zunz (1990); Pettigrew (1992); Hartmann (2000)
7 and 8. Presentations and summary
Student presentations followed by a summary discussion of the main insights from the course in terms of thedifferent perspectives on management, their assumptions, research methods and findings.
Preparation: Prepare a 10-minute presentation of a management idea/fashion/practice of your choice (to beagreed with the instructor), based on your own research. The content of the presentation, the underlying
research and your ability to transmit your ideas to the audience will be evaluated.
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Multiple Perspectives on Management(3)[Course requirements]
English language ability sufficient to interact actively in class.
[Evaluation methods and policy]
Class preparation and participation (40%), including a brief reflective quiz, and a 10-minute presentation andthe corresponding power point slide deck (60%), based on individual research (each marked out of 100 points)[Textbooks]********************:[References]
Abrahamson, E. (1996),'Management Fashion', Academy of Management Review 21 (1): 254-285
Barley, S. R. and Kunda, G. (1992),'Design and devotion: Surges of rational and normative ideologies ofcontrol in managerial discourse', Administrative Science Quarterly 37: 363-399.
Hartmann, M. (2000),'Class-specific habitus and the social reproduction of the business elite in Germany andFrance', The Sociological Review 48 (2): 262-282.
Kay, N. M. (2002),'Chandlerism in post‐war Europe: strategic and structural change in France, Germany
and the United Kingdom, 1950-1993: a comment', Industrial and Corporate Change 11 (1): 189-197.
Kiechel III, W. (2012),'The Management Century', Harvard Business Review 90 (11): 62-75.
Langlois, R. N. (2004), 'Chandler in a Larger Frame: Markets, Transaction Costs, and Organizational Form inHistory', Enterprise & Society 5 (3): 355-375.
Mair, A. (1999),'Learning from Honda', Journal of Management Studies 36 (1): 25-44Pettigrew, A. M. (1992),'On Studying Managerial Elites', Strategic Management Journal 13: 163-182.
Stewart, M. (2006),'The Management Myth', The Atlantic, June.
Whittington, R., Mayer, M. and Curto, F. (1999), 'Chandlerism in Post-War Europe: Strategic and Structural
Change in France, Germany and the United Kingdom, 1950-1993', Industrial and Corporate Change 8 (3):519-551.
Wilkinson, A., Armstrong S. J. and M. Lounsbury (2017) (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Management.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Zunz, O. (1990), Making America Corporate, 1870-1920. Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press.

[References, etc.]（Reference books）
See above.
（Related URLs）
https://agst.jgp.kyoto-u.ac.jp[Study outside of class (preparation and review)]
For each class, several references (journal articles, handbook chapters, etc.) will be assigned. These papers
will be uploaded to PandA a few weeks before the class starts. Participants are expected to read these papers
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Multiple Perspectives on Management(4)before attending the class based on the instructor's instructions.
（Other information (office hours, etc.)）
If it can be done in a short time, it should be done after class. For other cases, appointments should be madeindividually.
*Please visit KULASIS to find out about office hours.