Roger Smith

Educating the metamanager: a new breed of leader

Purpose – The purpose of this article is to make a case for the introduction of the liberal arts to management education curricula in addition to the traditional discipline subjects.Design/methodology/approach – The argument is based on the authors personal experience of many years teaching in MBA programs as well as working and consulting in business and commerce. It is also based on the value the author perceived in studying liberal arts subjects during the first year of his PhD in the UK.Findings – The findings are largely subjective and qualitative but should not be discarded on this count. In common with Robert Pirsig, author of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, the author would ask what is wrong with speculative, intuitive material unsupported by any real scientific study – particularly when speculating on man and behavior?Research limitations/implications – The obvious limitation on the argument made is that it is not based on scientific investigation.Practical implications – The major im...

A future for organisational behaviour

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to raise and critically analyse controversial issues facing the future directions of the academic discipline organisational behaviour (OB).Design/methodology/approach – Specifically, the commercial benefits for basic and applied OB research conducted by academics are considered. Arguments are advanced which cast doubt on the disciplines current directions.Findings – Proponents of traditional research in this field are accused of methodological myopia, inaccessibility, lack of relevance to practitioners and an inability to integrate research with successful practice. Such shortcomings have the potential to render OB theories, research and recommended practices irrelevant in many commercial environments.Practical implications – Better integration is recommended between popularist management practices and ideas with traditional research techniques to produce more business focussed outcomes. New modes of investigation are proposed which adopt dynamic research methodolog...

The application dilemma - a sceptic's perspective

Management researchers, academics and educators and self proclaimed management gurus have produced an enormous literary output on the topic of management and organisations over the past 100 years or so. There is no dearth of information available to practitioners on almost any topic in this field about which they wish to enquire. The

Mind for Hire: A practitioner's guide to management consulting

64 question remains – how much of the information and advice actually gets put into continuing effective use by managers? This paper examines a range of topics and suggests that the answer to the question is “very little”.