Management Gurus and Management Fashions
Publisher: Routledge
Published: April 26, 2001
Language: eng
Number of pages: 224
ISBN-13: 9780415249454
First sentence: Management gurus and management fashions have had an important impact upon my thinking and practice in all three of the roles - manager, educator and researcher - that I have performed in my professional life.
Description: "Since the 1980s, popular management thinkers, or management gurus, have promoted a number of performance improvement programs or management fashions that have greatly influenced both the conduct of organizational life and the preoccupations of academic researchers."

"This book provides a rhetorical critique of the management guru and management fashion phenomenon with a view to building on the important theoretical progress that has recently been made by a small, but growing, band of management researchers. Fantasy Theme Analysis, a dramatistically-based method of rhetorical criticism, is conducted on three of the most important management fashions to have emerged during the 1990s: the reengineering movement promoted by Michael Hammer and James Champy; the effectiveness movement led by Stephen Covey; and the learning organization movement inspired by Peter Senge and his colleagues."

"In addition to its theoretical and empirical contributions, this book aims to stimulate a much-needed critical dialogue between practitioners and academics about the sources of the underlying appeal of management gurus and management fashions, and their effect upon the quality of management and organizational learning."--Jacket.