A new book co-authored by Schulich Professor Matthias Kipping charts the evolution of management ideas and practices from their earliest expression within churches and households through their visionary packaging by business schools, consultants and media into a massive global industry.
Defining Management, published by Routledge and co-authored by renowned professors at leading business schools in Canada, Sweden and Turkey, examines how a lucrative and ubiquitous industry was developed around business schools, consultants, and business media who are now widely considered the authorities regarding best management practices.
For the first time, this narrative deftly navigates management scholarship and historical record to reveal how these actors – on their own and in conjunction – gained public acceptance and influence over management and managers, expanded across the globe from often modest and not always respected origins, and impacted businesses as well as the economy and society more broadly.
Building on existing scholarly work and groundbreaking new research, the book reveals a comprehensive new understanding of the rise of management to its current prominence and ubiquity.
Defining Management will prove eye-opening to all those studying and practicing management today and should also be of interest to journalists seeking to better understand the role of the business media in the evolution of management.
About the Authors
Matthias Kipping is professor of policy and chair in business history at the Schulich School of Business, York University. He has published numerous articles and co-edited two books on the consulting business. He is also co-editor, with McKinsey Global Managing Partner, Dominic Barton, and Schulich Dean Dezsö J. Horváth, of the forthcoming Re-Imagining Capitalism, published by Oxford University Press.
Lars Engwall is professor emeritus of business studies at Uppsala University, Sweden. He has published widely on institutional change and the diffusion of management ideas, in particular the role of management education and of the media.
Behlül Üsdiken is professor of management and organization at Sabanci University, Turkey. His work on business education and organizational research has appeared in various journals, including the Journal of Management Studies, as well as in edited collections.
For more information or to order a copy of Defining Management, please visit the Routledge website.