Critical Management Study

Introduction

This essay will argue that it is important to study management and organisations in a critical, questioning way for two reasons. First, it is important to do so due to the influence and reach of management in large commercial organisations that covers a lot of aspects in the society, economy and culture. Second, by taking a critical approach to management, there is a possible gain of knowledge and understanding of management and what it is which leads to a better and more effective manager in order to be in a position to secure positive results and prevent undesirable outcomes occurring. In Section One, it will demonstrate the first point with reference to evidences and arguments from (Morgan 2006) and (Bakan 2004) to outline how these pieces of writing consider the significant risks that these organisations pose and warn us not to be subjective and limited to the dominance of the organisational practices and managerial. In Section Two, (Mintzberg’s 1971) Managerial Work: Analysis from Observation will be used to argue that the unrelenting pace, great variety, fragmentation and brevity of managerial work described by Mintzberg, and the high levels of anxiety and confusion documented by (Linstead, Fulop and Lilley 2009), can easily show that managers are unable to find the means necessary such as time or space to be certain that the organisation they are representing is on its way to create benefits to the society instead of harming it. Throughout the essay, these points would imply that we should study management in a critical and questioning way. Touching upon (Watson 2006) and (Linstead, Fulop and Lilley 2009), in its final section of the essay, it will elaborate on what a critical and questioning approach really means and how studying management critically is not the same as being negative, it is instead a commitment to be a benefit to society and be an effective manager in an organisation (Clegg, Kornberger, Carter and Rhodes 2006) based on an