Bad Management Theories and Goshal
“Sadly, for me, Ghoshal (2005) comes from another planet. While I can glimpse something that might interest those ivory tower types I fail to see the practical relevance of what he’s on about-it’s certainly not about what shareholders expect of management today”. Comment and critique.
The article “Bad management theories are destroying good management practices” is a provocative article (Ghoshal, 2005) in which the late Sumantra Ghoshal challenges management academics to adjust to societal trends and needs and not to focus on parochial goals at the expense of the welfare of the global community. His article raises serious questions that address several theoretical and organisational issues, including “ scientific modelling, the pretence of knowledge and pessimistic assumptions. His article draws attention to the consequences of neglecting intentionality in business education and management theory, namely, unethical practices and collapse of corporations. In essence, the article was written as a message to business academics to take responsibility for what they teach. Although the concepts were delivered in a complex manner, many of the questions raised by this article are relevant to management today and not to be considered “from another planet”.
Ghoshal uses the article to reflect on corporate collapses, such as Enron, to argue that the wrong ideas and teachings that were/are dominant in business schools, have had detrimental effects on business practice. He uses the effect of the scientific model to focus his arguments:
..over the past 50 years business school research has increasingly adopted the “scientific model”- an approach that Hayek described as the pretence of knowledge. This pretence has demanded theorising based on partialization of analysis, the exclusion of any role for human intentionality or choice, and the use of sharp assumptions and deductive reasoning. Since morality, or ethics, is inseparable from human intentionality, a precondition for
The article “Bad management theories are destroying good management practices” is a provocative article (Ghoshal, 2005) in which the late Sumantra Ghoshal challenges management academics to adjust to societal trends and needs and not to focus on parochial goals at the expense of the welfare of the global community. His article raises serious questions that address several theoretical and organisational issues, including “ scientific modelling, the pretence of knowledge and pessimistic assumptions. His article draws attention to the consequences of neglecting intentionality in business education and management theory, namely, unethical practices and collapse of corporations. In essence, the article was written as a message to business academics to take responsibility for what they teach. Although the concepts were delivered in a complex manner, many of the questions raised by this article are relevant to management today and not to be considered “from another planet”.
Ghoshal uses the article to reflect on corporate collapses, such as Enron, to argue that the wrong ideas and teachings that were/are dominant in business schools, have had detrimental effects on business practice. He uses the effect of the scientific model to focus his arguments:
..over the past 50 years business school research has increasingly adopted the “scientific model”- an approach that Hayek described as the pretence of knowledge. This pretence has demanded theorising based on partialization of analysis, the exclusion of any role for human intentionality or choice, and the use of sharp assumptions and deductive reasoning. Since morality, or ethics, is inseparable from human intentionality, a precondition for