Insight into today's economic and financial problems comes, in this revealing book, from an understanding of how and why the practice and the teaching of management has developed as it has. Gordon Pearson, who has spent equal parts of his long career as a practising manager and a management educator, clarifies through rigorous historical review the difficult issues around management with which we struggle today, such as why management custom and practice so often lead to contravention of the law.
Pearson reviews how management became a practice and body of understanding, the development of its crucial role in economic progress, and then how its corruption came about as a result of malign theory, leading to the dominance of the bonus payment culture and short term deal-making that plague us today. Understanding management's past, suggests Pearson, will help its improvement for the future. Contributing to that understanding, this challenging book sheds light on how management might be renewed and on the benign role it could play if freed from the restraints of inappropriate economic theory.
This book is not just a history or a sociological analysis of management. It gives a broad, practically informed, critical view of the subject that will be welcomed by any reader with a professional or an academic interest in practice, theory, and context.
Contents: Prologue; Part 1 The Emergence of Management: Creating the first economic surplus; An economic theory of industry and commerce; Industrialization and management responsibilities; The developing economic and political context. Part 2 The Rise of Professional Management: New world, big business and educating management; Division of management labour; Theories of management; Management in practice. Part 3 The Educated Fall of Management: Seduction by the new strategic management; Friedman and business-friendly government; Business schools versus management education. Part 4 Management for New Responsibilities: The emerging perspective. Epilogue; Bibliography; Index.
About the Author: Dr. Gordon Pearson worked for a number of large industrial concerns and their overseas subsidiaries as a planning specialist, a specialist in mergers and acquisitions, and as a senior executive with line responsibility for most major management functions. After twenty years in industry including management consultancy, he moved into academe, writing his first book and completing a Ph.D. in strategy, innovation and culture at Manchester Business School.
Dr. Pearson then pursued a teaching career, moving to Keele University, where he served as Head of Department of Management, Director of MBA Programmes and Director of Keele Management Development Centre. He retains an Honorary Senior Research Fellowship. This is his sixth book.
Reviews: 'Gordon Pearson's new book fills an important gap. In the course of a careful and absorbing institutional history, he demolishes some of management's pervasive and damaging myths – such as the primacy of shareholder value – and restates its enduring verities.To reshape management for the future, we need to know how it developed and why. This is the place to start.' Simon Caulkin (Management Editor, The Observer)
'This book offers something that so many management texts fail to deliver - readability. With a succinct and easy to follow style, the author has produced a work, which is genuinely interesting to read.
If you want to discover how management has developed over time, against a background of well-explained economic theory, this text is a must. Similarly, if you struggle to remember the key concepts upon which economic theory is built, and their relevance to business practice, this is a book well worth reading.
Management is discussed as an evolving process in the context of social and political developments. The result is an excellent mix of history and management practice. Throughout the book, the author keeps in focus the practicalities of implementation. Stressing ‘implementation’ as the key to successful management keeps the book firmly based on day-to-day needs.
I particularly liked the epilogue introduced as “a broad account of past progress and mistakes”. But building on this, the author introduces realistic suggestions for future approaches that managers could adopt.' – Mike Turner FInstAM in e.Manager - The British Journal of Administrative Management
'This is an extremely insightful and challenging contribution to our understanding of management theory and practice. It offers a powerful and significant critique of the evolution of organizational life – one that is particularly suited to the times. Gordon Pearson’s book will make a major impact on the field and is simply a must for any management researcher’s bookshelf.' – John Hassard, Professor of Organizational Analysis, Manchester Business School
Pearson has written an illuminating and readable account of the practice, theory and context of management: a lively and provocative book that will make the reader question and rethink the ethos and morality of free market capitalism. The book will be invaluable for postgraduate business students and practitioners alike. – Mihaela Kelemen, Professor of Management Studies, Keele University
'The global recession means that management is in crisis. In this very readable book, Gordon Pearson reflects on his extensive practical and academic experience to explain what the problem is, and what can be done about it. This is a really provocative read for anyone who wants to understand what has gone wrong in the Business School, and the boardroom.' – Martin Parker, Professor of Organisation and Culture, Leicester University School of Management
This title is also available as an eBook, ISBN 978-0-566-08977-0
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Full contents list
Prologue
Chapter 3 - Industrialization and management responsibilities