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The Adoption of Management Ideas and Practices

Theoretical Perspectives and Possibilities

Imperial College London, UK a.sturdy{at}imperial.ac.uk

The adoption of new management ideas and practices has become an important and substantial area of study and debate within organizational studies, often under the label of management fads. However, there has been little critical reflection on the range of theoretical approaches used and their problems and possibilities. Moreover, while there has been some overlap with broader issues of management knowledge and learning, debates and literatures remain largely distinct. By way of an overview and as a way of furthering the existing multi-disciplinarity of debates on learning, this article selectively constructs and assesses six broad perspectives on the adoption of management ideas. Rational views are initially contrasted with various psychodynamic, dramaturgical, political, cultural and institutional approaches. However, it is argued that existing perspectives and classifications tend to be dualistic and either idealize or marginalize managerial rationality. This leads to empirical neglect and the possibility for approaches where rational management is acknowledged as necessarily bounded and emotional.

Key Words: emotion • fads • knowledge diffusion • rationality • theory • translation

Management Learning, Vol. 35, No. 2, 155-179 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/1350507604043023


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