IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ibn/ibrjnl/v9y2016i1p123-135.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Myths and Narratives for Management

Author

Listed:
  • Ulrich Gehmann

Abstract

Having in mind the social, human, cultural and systemic problems management is confronted with today, but also the intricate relationships between art and technique, the recent predominant understanding of what ‘management’ is settles upon its technical, that is, essentially functional character. The thesis is that this basic character has not changed, despite all attempts to redefine, modify, or even re-think management as a cultural practice. Related to this basic character, some elements of the mind set underlying such an understanding of ‘management’ shall be examined, elements which may be called mythic. For such a mind set, management is primarily conceived as a function, and as in case of every process that is technical in its essence, it finally aims at an objectification and optimization of the entities it has to deal with. That functional character, and out of it, the desire for dominating the respective entities by formatting them rests on certain assumptions about a ‘relevant’ world, assumptions to be examined in this contribution.

Suggested Citation

  • Ulrich Gehmann, 2016. "Myths and Narratives for Management," International Business Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 9(1), pages 123-135, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:ibn:ibrjnl:v:9:y:2016:i:1:p:123-135
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ibr/article/view/55918/30069
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/ibr/article/view/55918
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gowdy, John M., 2004. "Altruism, evolution, and welfare economics," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 69-73, January.
    2. Michael Haynes, 2009. "History, markets, hierarchies and institutions," International Journal of Management Concepts and Philosophy, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 3(3), pages 205-224.
    3. Avgitidou Athina, 2011. "Financial crisis: the myth of free market ideology and current regulatory reforms," International Journal of Management Concepts and Philosophy, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 5(3), pages 218-230.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nathalie Lazaric & Kevin Maréchal, 2010. "Overcoming inertia: insights from evolutionary economics into improved energy and climate policy," Post-Print hal-00452205, HAL.
    2. Karbowski, Adam, 2011. "Sądy postulatywne w ekonomii głównego nurtu [Postulative Claims in Mainstream Economics]," MPRA Paper 69603, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. van den Bergh, Jeroen C.J.M. & Gowdy, John M., 2009. "A group selection perspective on economic behavior, institutions and organizations," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 72(1), pages 1-20, October.
    4. Li, Zhengtao & Folmer, Henk & Xue, Jianhong, 2014. "To what extent does air pollution affect happiness? The case of the Jinchuan mining area, China," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 88-99.
    5. Petar Stankov, 2017. "Economic Freedom and Welfare Before and After the Crisis," Springer Books, Springer, number 978-3-319-62497-6, June.
    6. Gowdy, John M., 2008. "Behavioral economics and climate change policy," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 68(3-4), pages 632-644, December.
    7. Rafindadi, Abdulkadir Abdulrashid, 2016. "Does the need for economic growth influence energy consumption and CO2 emissions in Nigeria? Evidence from the innovation accounting test," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 1209-1225.
    8. Karbowski, Adam, 2016. "Discussion on the Social Rate of Discount: from Sen to Behavioural Economics," EconStor Open Access Articles and Book Chapters, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics, vol. 9(2), pages 46-60.
    9. Eleftherios Giovanis, 2019. "Worthy to lose some money for better air quality: applications of Bayesian networks on the causal effect of income and air pollution on life satisfaction in Switzerland," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 57(5), pages 1579-1611, November.
    10. Marechal, Kevin, 2007. "The economics of climate change and the change of climate in economics," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(10), pages 5181-5194, October.
    11. Adam Karbowski, 2015. "Kartele w trzech perspektywach: neoklasycznej, behawioralnej oraz etycznej," Gospodarka Narodowa. The Polish Journal of Economics, Warsaw School of Economics, issue 3, pages 5-26.
    12. Rafindadi, Abdulkadir Abdulrashid, 2016. "Revisiting the concept of environmental Kuznets curve in period of energy disaster and deteriorating income: Empirical evidence from Japan," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 274-284.
    13. Karbowski, Adam & Prokop, Jacek, 2012. "Kontrowersje związane z ekonomicznym uzasadnieniem ochrony patentowej [Controversies over the economic justifications for patent protection]," MPRA Paper 73619, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Safarzyńska, Karolina, 2013. "Evolutionary-economic policies for sustainable consumption," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 187-195.
    15. Gowdy, John M. & Dollimore, Denise E. & Wilson, David Sloan & Witt, Ulrich, 2013. "Economic cosmology and the evolutionary challenge," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 90(S), pages 11-20.
    16. Karbowski, Adam & Prokop, Jacek, 2013. "Controversy over the economic justifications for patent protection," EconStor Conference Papers 127476, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    management understanding; mythology; functionalism; history of ideas;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • R00 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General - - - General
    • Z0 - Other Special Topics - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ibn:ibrjnl:v:9:y:2016:i:1:p:123-135. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Canadian Center of Science and Education (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/cepflch.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.