Roots of the Current, Dominant Management Paradigm
The classes and implications of management failure described in Chapter 2 are seen as largely the result of management practice within the framework of the current, dominant paradigm, which is defined in this chapter. Any effort to challenge the existing
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Roots of the Current, Dominant Management Paradigm
Anticipatory Summary • Our premise is that the classes and implications of management failure described in Chapter 2 are largely the result of the current, dominant management paradigm. Recognizing that other patterns of management practice exist, this paradigm continues to broadly hold sway over how management is taught and practiced. The paradigm is defined in these terms: intellectual grounding, driving force, central function and core dogma. • Inconsistency and lack of fit between the existing paradigm and the reality of organizations and their constituencies are creating an accumulating set of anomalies pointing to a need for change. • Any intent to change the paradigm begins by seeking to understand its roots. We propose that the roots of the beliefs and assumptions that underpin the existing paradigm are these interrelated strands of influence: Neoclassical economics, evolutionary theory (the selfish gene) and functionalist sociology. • Neoclassical economics is traditional, mainstream economics based on the idea of economic man and gloomy as well as unrealistic assumptions about human nature, including narrow self-interest, opportunism and rationality.
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017 N. Douglas, T. Wykowski, Rethinking Management, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-41902-2_3
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N. DOUGLAS AND T. WYKOWSKI
–– History and conceptual development explores the formative stages of this theoretical edifice and its synthesis into what we know as neoclassical economics or the “standard model.” –– Essential modes of influence addresses how neoclassical economics becomes operative in organizational life and focuses on two theories held with religious-like zeal: Agency and Transaction Cost. • Evolutionary theory (selfish gene) is a well-established view of human nature deriving from a specific interpretation of evolutionary biology. The economic man of biology is the result of the conception of the selfish gene and conforms comfortably with economic man of neoclassical economics. –– Development of evolutionary thought surveys the course of development of natural selection and path dependence as the explanation of how life transforms itself from within and adapts for survival and reproduction. –– Evolutionary process versus interpretation explores the distinction between process reflected in an evolutionary style of reasoning on the one hand and interpretation representing the meaning construed from the process on the other. • Functionalist sociology views the social world as objective and, therefore, governed by natural laws of behavior. It adopts the empirical methods of the sciences to develop rational explanations and conclusions about social life. –– The historical development and implications segment surveys the development of sociology as a discipline equivalent to the history of the development of “social physics,” that is, functionalist sociology. –– Criticism of functionalism has intensified over the years. That any understanding of social
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