Confronting Managerialism: How the Business Elite and Their Schools Threw Our Lives Out of Balance

by Robert R. Locke, J.-C. Spender

Overview

Confronting Managerialism offers a scathing critique of the influence of neoclassical economics and modern finance on business school teaching and management practice. Locke and Spender show that responsible management has given way to 'managerialism', whereby an elite caste of businessmen disconnected from any ethical considerations call the shots.

The book traces the loss of managers' earlier social concerns, amply encouraged by management education's transformation since the 1960's, especially in the US. It also questions not only the social ethics of the US management caste but its management efficacy compared to systems of management that are highly employee participatory and dependent, such as in Germany and Japan.

A unique, topical and controversial look at a subject that impacts us all.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781780320717
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	09/08/2011
Series:	Economic Controversies
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Robert R. Locke is Emeritus Professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He is the author of numerous books and articles, including The End of the Practical Man (2006), The Collapse of the American Management Mystique (1996), and The Entrepreneurial Shift (2004).

J.-C. Spender is the author of Industry Recipes (1989) and, with Burton-Jones, the editor of The Oxford Handbook of Human Capital (2011).
Robert R. Locke is Emeritus Professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. He is the author of numerous books and articles, including The End of the Practical Man (2006), The Collapse of the American Management Mystique (1996), and The Entrepreneurial Shift (2004).

J.-C. Spender is the author of Industry Recipes (1989) and, with Burton-Jones, the editor of The Oxford Handbook of Human Capital (2011).

Table of Contents

Foreword
Introduction: Managerialism and Business School Education (1920-1970)
1. The Failure of Management Science and the US Business School Model
2. US Managerialsm and Business Schools Fail to Find Their Moral Compass
3. Managerialism and the Decline of the US Automobile Industry
4. Managerialism, Business Schools, and our Financial Crisis
Conclusion: Back to Balance
References

Editorial Reviews

"In a brilliant and compelling narrative, Locke and Spender trace the decline of American business after World War Two to the extinction of socially responsible management. This is a truly important book ... definitely a must-read." -- H. Thomas Johnson, Professor of Sustainability Management, Portland State University

From the Publisher