Why Do Bad Management Theories Persist? A Comment on Ghoshal

Abstract

This article comments on a paper by Sumantra Ghoshal published in this issue of Academy of Management Learning & Education which argues that academic research related to the conduct of business and management has had some very significant and negative influences on the practice of management. The author notes that in a word, Ghoshal is right. He is right in the sense that economics is indeed taking over management and organization science, just as it has taken over political science and law and is making inroads into sociology and psychology--trends that have been occasionally documented and could, and should be, empirically studied. The field of economics has more and more tended to dominate the formulation of curricula and research agendas in all of the social and policy sciences and, in some cases, even in the humanities. Ghoshal is right that this takeover matters, because social theories matter. The theories that come to be believed and accepted affect both public and organizational policies and practices. Moreover, as Ghoshal notes, theories, once accepted, set into motion processes that tend to ensure they become self-fulfilling. And Ghoshal is certainly right when he reiterates that the assumptions of much of economic theory and the effects of these assumptions on people and institutions can be harmful.