When Russell Ackoff – a founding father of management education – was asked “What have been the major contributions of business education?”, he replied:
“There are three!
- The first was to equip students with a vocabulary that enables them to talk authoritatively about subjects they do not understand.
- The second was to give students principles that would demonstrate their ability to withstand any amount of disconfirming evidence.
- The third was give students a ticket to a job where they could learn something about management.”
Below are some readings that may help you in the pursuit of ‘Middle C’ Criticality – a vital disposition!
Some have been purpose written for this website/online courses.
If readings are numbered/in a group, you should read them in numerical order.
Peter’s slides for an introductory lecture on the Epistemic & Intellectualist Fallacies
Click on image to view slides
Sumantra Ghoshal’s exceptional article Bad Management Theories are Destroying Good Management Practices. This article lays bare the dangerous dysfunction of management education.
by Bennis & O’Toole
The Wizard who Oversimplified – by Harold Peterson [1965]
Funny and would make a good start to your critical journey!
The Management Myth – most management theory is inane …
don’t get an MBA study philosophy instead – by Matthew Stewart [2006]
The Pretence Of Knowledge by von Hayek. His Nobel Prize Memorial Lecture, 1974
A hard hitting critique of the foolhardy ‘scientistic’ ambitions of social studies and economics.
True But Useless – A lovely little article from David Hurst laying bare the flawed assumptions of the business school discourse. I wouldn’t use the word ‘true’ of course – only the word ‘useless’ and often the word ‘dangerous’.