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Rethinking Management Knowledge - MAN00046H

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  • Department: The York Management School
  • Module co-ordinator: Prof. Leo McCann
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: H
  • Academic year of delivery: 2024-25

Module summary

This module will develop students understanding of how contemporary management ideas have developed and spread over time around the globe (and into outer space!). Received understandings of the institutions, ideas, and practices of management will be contrasted with that arising from recent research which has identified the extent to which the invention of ‘new’ management approaches is often old idea recycled as fads and fashions.

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Semester 2 2024-25

Module aims

This module will develop students' understanding of how contemporary management ideas have developed and spread over time. Received understandings of the institutions, ideas, and practices of management will be contrasted with that arising from recent research which has identified the extent to which the invention of ‘new’ management approaches is often old ideas recycled as fads and fashions. Management knowledge of various kinds and emerging from different social institutions (such as business schools, management consultants, gurus, entrepreneurs) will be introduced and its assumptions, values and impacts will be critically interrogated.

The module intends to empower students in their final year to re-think management knowledge, ideas and practices as both developing managers and the managed, developers of new management ideas, and implementers of managerial change. Students completing this course should be more able to make informed choices about the selection of management approaches, their strengths and weaknesses and recognise the processes, for good and otherwise, whereby management models and philosophies are created, how they change, and what effects they have on management, organisation, economy and society.

Module learning outcomes

Students will be able to:

  • Develop an understanding of how contemporary management ideas develop and spread across the private, public and third sector

  • Assess the extent to which new management knowledge products are genuinely innovative and effective

  • Rethink the implications of management ideas for their own lives and practise as managers

  • Critically explore some 'classical' management texts and concepts

Module content

Specific themes may include

  • Historical roots of management ideas

  • The creation and diffusion of management ideas through academia, consulting, training, and 'pop' management

  • The effectiveness and otherwise of management ideas

  • Specific management ideas, such as KPIs and targets, psychometric testing, lean management, and the work of high-profile 'gurus' such as Jim Collins and Tom Peters

  • Management ideas and controversies that come from outside the management discipline, e.g. from psychology (such as the Milgram and Zimbardo experiments)

  • Controversies around management education and business schools

  • The Management of Culture and ‘Soft Management’ roles in marketized transformations of organizations
  • The MBA and the formation of Global elites
  • How managers and organisations ‘use history’ for strategic and/or operational advantage

Teaching will focus on set readings ranging from ‘standard’ academic texts, through to popular management publications and media – magazines, airport management theory, guru presentations – and major management consultancy publications and web resources. Lectures will be accompanied by seminars which enable the framing concepts to be explored.

Assessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
Individual Book Review - 500 words		 N/A 20
Essay/coursework
Individual Essay - 5000 words		 N/A 80

Special assessment rules

None

Reassessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
Individual Book Review - 500 words		 N/A 20
Essay/coursework
Individual Essay - 5000 words		 N/A 80

Module feedback

Feedback will be given in accordance with the University Policy on feedback in the Guide to Assessment as well as in line with the School policy.

Indicative reading

Indicative texts include:

Brannigan, A., (2013) ‘Stanley Milgram’s Obedience Experiments: A Report Card 50 Years Later’, Society, 50, 6: 623-628

Bridgman, Todd, and Stephen Cummings. 2020. A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book about Management Theory. London: SAGE.

Clark, T., and Salaman, G. (1996) ‘The Management Guru as Organisational Witchdoctor’, Organization, 3(1): 85-107.

Cooke B. (2003) The Denial of Slavery in Management Studies, Journal of Management Studies, December, 40, 8, 1895 - 1918

Hanlon, Gerard. 2016. The Dark Side of Management: A Secret History of Management Theory. London: Routledge.

Klikauer, Thomas. 2015. “What Is Managerialism?” Critical Sociology 41 (7-8): 1103–19.

McKenna, C.D (2010) The World’s Newest Profession: Management Consulting in the Twentieth Century, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Ordonez, L., et al., (2009) ‘Goals Gone Wild: The Systematic Side Effects of Overprescribing Goal Setting,’ Academy of Management Perspectives, 23, 1: 6-16.

Parker, M. (2018) Shut Down the Business School: What’s Wrong with Management Education. London: Pluto


The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University is constantly exploring ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary by the University. Where appropriate, the University will notify and consult with affected students in advance about any changes that are required in line with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.