From Jensen to Jensen: Mechanistic Management Education or Humanistic Management Learning?
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ORIGINAL PAPER
From Jensen to Jensen: Mechanistic Management Education or Humanistic Management Learning? Claus Dierksmeier1,2 Received: 1 July 2018 / Accepted: 27 January 2019 © Springer Nature B.V. 2019
Abstract Michael Jensen made a name for himself in the 1970s–1990 s with his ‘agency theory’ and its application to questions of corporate governance and economic policy. The effects of his theory were acutely felt in the pedagogics of business studies, as Jensen lent his authority to combat all attempts to integrate social considerations and moral values into business education. Lately, however, Michael Jensen has come to defend quite a different approach, promoting an ‘integrity theory’ of management learning. Jensen now rather aspires to empower students to give authentic expression to their personal values in their professional lives, and he sees the main function of management studies in assisting them in this effort. This article reconstructs the transformation of Jensen’s outlook, drawing on Jensen’s theories as an exemplar of wider trends in the current literature on management learning, away from a decidedly ‘mechanistic’ and towards a more ‘humanistic’ pedagogy of management. Jensen’s case serves to highlight developments that might make for better preconditions for the appreciation of business ethics on part of business students. On closer inspection, though, it appears that his remaining within a positivistic framework ultimately impedes the kind of progress Michael Jensen envisions for business studies. Keywords Management education · Humanistic management · Agency theory
Introduction In recent years, many authors have stressed how the methods and contents predominant in the pedagogy of economics and business studies impact on the effectiveness of business ethics, since the mental models established in the disciplines of economics and management either help or hinder students on their trajectory to responsible leadership. At present, conventional models of management education—usually crafted from a third-person perspective and intended to impart ‘value-free’ knowledge—are falling out of favor. They are giving way to alternate approaches of management learning—typically oriented at the first-person perspective of students trying to ‘give voice’ to their respective values. While the former conceptions were largely modeled after the natural sciences and established a ‘mechanistic’ paradigm * Claus Dierksmeier [email protected]; claus.dierksmeier@uni‑tuebingen.de 1
Eberhardstr. 45, 72108 Rottenburg, Germany
Institute for Political Science, Melanchthonstr. 36, 72074 Tübingen, Germany
2
of management theory, the latter, being both more oriented at the social sciences and infused by the humanities, tend to a rather ‘humanistic’ outlook. The teachings of Michael Jensen are a case in point. Michael C. Jensen (1939–) is among the most renowned academics in management theory.1 As a professor for finance at the Harvard Business School, he has been able to shape the pedagogic agenda of one
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