Abstract
In the 1980s the interest in manifestations of management and leadership in modern Western society increased considerably. This means in practice that many individuals and organizations in the international community spent a great deal of money on management books, magazines, consultants, training programmes, executive seminars and conferences. Furthermore, large numbers of people all around the world were involved in producing and distributing these manifestations. The popularity of managerial manifestations can therefore be seen as a phenomenon, or rather an element in organizations’ environments which embodies modern thoughts of managerial and organizational life. In this respect it can be argued that popular manifestations articulate modern beliefs of what good and bad management is supposed to be. However, are these rooted in knowledge or ideology? And what does it mean for organizations to be characterized as having roots in one or the other cognitive category? The purpose of this chapter is, if not to answer these questions, to at least give reasonable explanations.
Earlier versions of this chapter have been published elsewhere (Furusten, 1992, 1993, 1995).
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© 1998 Staffan Furusten
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Furusten, S. (1998). The Creation of Popular Management Texts. In: Alvarez, J.L. (eds) The Diffusion and Consumption of Business Knowledge. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-25899-4_6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-25899-4_6
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