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Chandler and the Visible Hand of Management

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The Palgrave Handbook of Management History

Abstract

The work of Alfred D. Chandler Jr. (1918–2007) was undoubtedly path breaking as well as paradigm building. His corpus of work can claim foundational relevance to at least two separate subfields of the management studies discipline – strategic management, and management/business history, together with theory sets such as transaction cost economics and historical institutionalism. Chandler’s career was profoundly important in building the management studies discipline in both theoretical and empirical terms, seeking to explain the rise of the “modern industrial enterprise,” yet it requires understanding within its own historical context. Chandler’s work remains resonant today, and this chapter aims to critically explore the implications of this phenomenon, both interrogating the affirmative impacts of his writing and the contemporary world it reflected as well as that of his critics.

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  1. The York Management School, University of York, York, UK

    Kevin D. Tennent

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Tennent, K.D. (2019). Chandler and the Visible Hand of Management. In: The Palgrave Handbook of Management History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62348-1_39-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-62348-1_39-1

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