Patricia Genoe McLaren

A product of “his” time? Exploring the construct of the ideal manager in the Cold War era

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the idea that the ideal manager is a social construct that is a product of the context within which it exists. The context chosen to illustrate this idea is that of the first two decades of the Cold War (1945‐1965) in the USA.Design/methodology/approach – The methodology used is an analysis of 17 management textbooks published between 1945 and 1965 in the USA.Findings – The analysis of the textbooks shows a typification of the ideal manager as an educated male who wielded authority effectively and accepted social responsibility. These four characteristics can all be tied to the social and political context of the early Cold War years.Research limitations/implications – Limited by its focus on management theory in the USA during the early Cold War era, and a selection of textbooks based on available resources. Future research could analyze the ideal manager construct during social and political contexts other than the Cold War, and across other social forma...

Appropriation, Manipulation, and Silence: A Critical Hermeneutic Analysis of the Management Textbook as a Tool of the Corporate Discourse

Abstract The management textbook is a fundamental tool in the education of business students.This article uses a critical hermeneutic analysis to examine how major social and political issues of the past six decades have been incorporated into the management textbook in ways that increase the power and unquestioned acceptance of the corporate discourse.The specific social and political events addressed are the feminist revolution and the civil rights movement.

Disseminating Drucker: Knowledge, tropes and the North American management textbook

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand how Druckers work has been disseminated through the North American management textbook since 1940, and what this tells people about the wider issue of the social construction and dissemination of management knowledge. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is a critical hermeneutic analysis of the presence and use of Drucker in over 500 management textbooks and the socio‐political context in which both Druckers work and North American textbooks were written. Findings – Paradoxically, while Druckers work was found to be the most‐referenced of any management writer in the textbooks studied, his theories – apart from discussions of “Management by objectives” and the “Knowledge economy” – were rarely discussed. It is argued that the referencing of Drucker served more to legitimize selected points made by textbook authors than to discuss and build on Druckers work. Explanation of the paradox is explored through the socio‐political contexts in which Drucker was writing, strongly suggesting that the North American textbook has developed a dominant scientivistic trope that construct business “knowledge” through the narrow lens of behavioural science. Originality/value – While much writing can be found on the influence of Drucker on the business world and his status as a management guru, little is found on Druckers body of work in the management textbook, which plays a key role in management education in North American business schools. The paper builds on recent management research on the role of socio‐political context in the shaping of management theory and knowledge, and makes a new contribution to ones understanding of the shaping and contours of management knowledge.

James Burnham, The Managerial Revolution, and the development of management theory in post-war America

Abstract In 1941 James Burnham published the bestselling book The Managerial Revolution. In this paper, I explore the social and political context of the time in which Burnham formed his theory of an ongoing social revolution from a capitalist to a managerial society. The relationships between Burnhams book and the early years of the development of management theory in America are discussed in an effort to increase understanding of how the discipline of management has evolved and where it may go in the future.

The rigour–relevance gap in professional programmes: Bridging the ‘unbridgeable’ between higher education and practice

The tension between the rigour and the relevance of higher education research remains an important and hotly contested topic among scholars, administrators, practitioners and policymakers. This debate is most evident in professional programmes in which scholars are challenged to pursue new knowledge independent of its immediate relevance to practice while simultaneously contributing actionable knowledge to their profession. This two-part study explores whether the resulting pressure has an impact on the scholarly output and recruitment practices of different professional programmes. The results show that the context of the profession has a significant influence on the level of integration between academia and industry.

Business without the Math: Competing Discourses and the Struggle to Develop an Undergraduate Leadership Program.

Despite widespread acknowledgement of the importance of leadership education, undergraduate leadership degree programs in Canada are limited and, in some cases, struggling for survival. This case study examines the ways in which competing discourses of careerism, postsecondary