four views on management fashion

8/2/2019 Four Views on Management Fashion

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FourViewson

ManagementFashion


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TheEvolutionofFashionableManagementFashionableManagement:Whenwehear theword fashionable,wemeansomething that istrendy

and

contemporary,

has

a

short

lifetime

and

disappears

after

a

certain

period.

Likewise,

fashionablemanagementmeansthenewideasandconceptsinthefieldofmanagementthose

have a little life span. For example, Business process reengineering (BPR), Total quality

management (TQM),Customer relationshipmanagement (CRM)are contemporary concepts.

Allthesetemporarymanagementconceptsareknownasfashionablemanagement.

TheEvolutionofFashionableManagement:Thecomingandgoingof fashionablemanagementconceptsbecame reallyobvious from the

beginning of the nineteen nineties. In the last two decades,we saw a rapid change in the

knowledgefieldaroundmanagement.

Ifwewanttotracetheoriginoffashionablemanagement,wecouldfocusonthebankruptcyof

partsofthemanagementsciences. Themanagersthentriedtoestablishtheirownscience

which

resulted

in

the

growth

of

the

MBA

education.

Since

that

period,

both

managers

and

management scienceswere stronglyorientedon the systematicdevelopmentof companies.

Complicatedmodelswithallkindoffutureestimatesweredevelopedandtranslatedintolong

rangeplans.Fordecades,theselongrangeplansweretheleadinginstrumentstomanagelarge

centralizedcorporations.

However, in the early nineteen eighties, this situation suddenly ended. The quick rise of

Japanese

firms

on

markets

where

US

firms

dominated

for

decades

caused

a

great

shift

in

management thinking.Suddenly, leadership,cultureandothersofterelementsofmanagerial

issues became central. Detailed and intellectually sound management models seemed

insufficientformanagingcompaniesintothefuture.


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Asaresult,scientificmanagementseemednotveryhelpfulatthispoint.

To fill up the gap and solve the problems immediately, managers relied on totally new

concepts.Differentmagazinesandbusinessjournalswereprintingnewerconcepts.Publishers

discovered thismarket fullofwilling and rich consumers andquickly entered the fieldwith

seriesofnewpublicationsinwhichallkindsofnewconceptswerepresented.Theconsultancy

firms, organization and the publishing market grew very quickly and developed their own

dynamics. Thestreamofmanagementconceptgotintoitsstrideandasaresult,ittransformed

theappearanceanddynamicsinthecollectiveknowledgebaseonmanagementissues.

Thisway,theconceptoffashionablemanagementevolved.

FourviewsofManagementFashionAccording to the study of the case, the author has mentioned that four new views of

management

have

appeared

in

the

recent

time.

They

are:

1. TheaccumulationmovementorGettingBetter2. ThependulummovementorGoingBackandForth3. ThecircularmovementorOldWineinNewBottle4. ThelackofmovementorHotAir


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Thesefourviewsaresummarizedbelow.

1.TheaccumulationmovementorGettingBetter:

Todaywe see a flood ofnewmanagement thoughts are entering and getting added in the

knowledgecommunity.AccordingtotheviewofGettingBetter,theresearchersarguethatit

isapositivesightthatmoreandmoremanagementconceptsarecomingnowdays.Thebenefit

oftheseconceptliesonthefactthat,allthenewconceptsandideasaddanewperspectiveand

insights intotheoverallmanagerialknowledgebase.Thisnewlyacquiredknowledge iscrucial

elementinthecontemporaryknowledgecommunity.

Forexample, since theendofWorldWar II in1945, theAmericanmanagement community

received abunchof new quality concepts and that these concepts often had a fashionable

characterbecause theydisappearedquickly from thepublic scene.However, these concepts

helped theAmericanManagementarenaa lot.Someof these concepts canbe criticized for

beingunimportantanduninteresting.However, the total sequenceof conceptshaveoverall

positiveeffects.TheendresultisalonglistofqualityconceptsthatenteredintotheAmerica.In

doing this, the community learned new practiceswhich over the years accumulated in the

collectiveknowledgebase.

2.ThependulummovementorGoingBackandForth:It is quite common that, the managers of present days always try to solve different

organizational problem using the newmanagement concepts. But sometimes themanagers

focussomuchonthepresentthattheyforgetaboutthefutureoutcomesofnewconceptsor

practicesthatarebeingappliedrightnow.Theyuseanunknownconcepttosolveaproblem;

however,theunknownconceptmaybringanothernewproblem. Theargumentcontainsan

underlyingassumption thatorganizationsareproblematicbydefinitionand that solvingone

problemwithaconceptwillgeneratethenextproblem.Asaresultofthisproblemgenerating


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ability of new concepts, the collective knowledge base develops a dynamic character. The

knowledgebasemovesbackandforth.Thatswhythisviewiscalledthependulummovement.

For example,when a firm faces lowproductivity, themanagementmay implement ahighly

sophisticatedtrainingprogram.However,afterthetraining,theskilledworkforcemaydemand

highersalary.Thus,theorganizationwouldfacefinancialdifficultyorhigherturnoverrate.So,

hereoneconceptbroughtanotherproblem.However,eachproblemaddsnewknowledge in

thebase.Thisislikethependulummovementofknowledge.

3.ThecircularmovementorOldWineinNewBottle:Thetermoldwineinnewbottlemeansservingtheoldandordinarythinginanewway.The

content issamebutthepresentation isdifferent.Likewise,thisviewofmanagementdictates

that,nonewconceptsareactuallybeingaddedintheknowledgebase,alltheoldandobsolete

theories are being reused. Existingmanagement knowledge is recycled by giving it a new

appearanceandappliedagainasanewsolutiontocontemporarymanagerialproblems.Sothe

changesare

occurring

not

in

the

concepts

or

knowledge

base

but

in

the

dynamics

of

the

managementlanguage.

For example, in the pastmanagers used the term Internal business processmanagement

methodtodescribetheoverallchangeintheorganizationandincreasingproductivity.Today,

themanagersuseafancytermBusinessProcessReengineering,whichisalmostsameasthe

previousmethod.So,BPRisinfactnothingnew,itisjustanewpresentationoftheoldmethod.

Thisis

called

old

wine

in

new

bottle.

4.ThelackofmovementorHotAir:


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Thefourthandlastviewsonmanagementconceptsconsistofthehotairmethod.Itisthemost

negative viewof fashionablemanagement. It tells that, new concepts arejust absurd. They

havenoworthandtheybringnogoodtotheknowledgebase.Thebelieversofthismodelsay

that itisbeautifulrhetoricandselfmadeassumptionsofconsultantswithoutanyrelationship

withtheeverydaypractices.

Forexample,there isasubgroupofmanagersthattriestostayasfarawayaspossiblefromfashionableconceptsandanythingconnectedtoit.HaroldGeneen,formerCEOofITT,showed

averyhostileattitude towards the fashionablemanagement concepts.According tohim,no

magic formula, secret or stylish concept brings success. Success comes from the virtue of

honesty,hardworkandrisktaking.

Thesearethesummaryoffourcontemporarymanagementviewsofmanagement.

four views on management fashion

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