The Management Myth

Debunking Modern Business Philosophy

by Matthew Stewart

Number of pages: 352

ISBN: 978-0393338522

About the Author

Matthew is an American philosopher and author currently living in the Boston, Massachusetts area. He is the author of Nature's God, The Management Myth, The Courtier and the Heretic, Monturiol's Dream, and The Truth About Everything.

Editorial Review

The true nature of management is humanity. Unfortunately, the idea of the humanity of management is not yet widely understood. We all used to consider management as a kind of technology based on scientific observation, tended by experts and transferable to students. This idea has its roots firmly planted in the American experience. However, the modern idea of management is right enough to be dangerously wrong.

Book Reviews

"As the title suggests, Matthew Stewart’s The Management Myth posits that the modern cult of management, with its attendant consultants and schools and MBAs and gurus and shelves of self-improvement books, is a monumental, gleaming crock in which staggering quantities of cash are steamed in the vapour of highly refined snake oil." The Rationalist Association

"The Management Myth by Matthew Stewart, which is destined to become a classic, advancing tremendously The Witch Doctors criticisms and shortcomings of the consulting industry with the added bonus of taking on business education in general, and the ridiculous idea that management needs to be a profession." accountingweb

"Stewart’s book weighs in at 343 pages but 40 of those are taken up by a list of references, an appendix and the index. The 303 pages of text are an easy and pleasant read. Stewart’s prose is relaxed and straightforward (despite being dotted with words like “rebarbative” and “chthonic”). The book is also liberally laced with fascinating anecdotes and characters." Fred Nickols

"'How can so many who know so little make so much by telling other people how to do the jobs they are paid to know how to do?' The answer to this question, posed by a professor of author Matthew Stewart, is basically the entire volume of The Management Myth, itself. This darkly funny, brutally detailed look at the management consultant class manages to unveil nonsense and presumptions of everyone involved in corporate life in America, from current gurus like Tom Peters (In Search of Excellence) to modern-day Fortune 500 company heads to the worshipped founders of business schools and management theory." Daily Kos

Books on Related Topics

Wisdom to Share

Life is full of surprises and this may be the best thing about it. Every surprise is an opportunity for learning.

Unfortunately, the abovementioned idea of the humanity of management is not yet widely understood.

We all used to consider management as a kind of technology based on scientific observation, tended by experts and transferable to students.

The scientific management movement derived its passion from America's torrid love affair with science and technology.

The optimistic aspect of scientific management mirrored America's utopian conviction that progress would soon make happiness into a universal law.

At the bottom of all contradictions in the idol of management lies a fundamental refusal to acknowledge the reality of economic power.

Top management takes responsibility for deciding on the mix of business a corporation ought to pursue and for judging the performance of business unit managers.

The concept of strategy as it emerges from the work of the pioneers in the field is essential in defining the function of top management and distinguishing it from that of its social inferiors.

The central insights of management theory are, in fact, the stock in trade of the humanities disciplines.

The idea that philosophy is an inherently academic pursuit is a recent and diabolical invention.