MGC4220

Perspectives and paradigms in management theory

Dr Edward Vaughan

One 3-hour session per week · First semester · Clayton

Objectives On completion of this subject students should have a good understanding of central issues and debates within management theory and be able to distinguish major schools of thought. Students should also feel more confiudent about their ability to argue and defend a point of view, and to undertake their own research in this subject area.

Synopsis Debates within management theory mainly revolve around different views on the rationality and legitimacy of management structure and process. To some extent, these differences reflect the complexity of modern organisation and management, and also the multi-disciplinary nature of academic interest. However, differences also arise from the particular ways in which observers 'make sense' of management and its contexts. For example, the assumptions about reality that underpin social science predispose researchers to look for evidence of systemic order and impersonal forces, and to view rationality as a formal and instrumental process. This contrasts with alternative (including post-modernist) paradigms which view management quite differently, perhaps as a political process, or maybe even theatre. These different viewpoints will be examined and contrasted, and their implications for rationality and legitimacy considered.

Assessment Written assignment (2500 words): 50% · Examination: 50%

Back to the 1999 Business and Economics Handbook