A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book about Management Theory

Todd Bridgman (@toddbridgman) is Associate Professor in the School of Management at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Todd completed his PhD in organization studies at the University of Cambridge. His research interests lie at the intersection of management history, management education and critical management studies. In particular, he is interested in challenging conventional histories of management that appear in textbooks and writing alternative histories as a way of rethinking how management is taught to students. Todd edited The Oxford Handbook of Critical Management Studies (Oxford University Press, 2009) with Mats Alvesson and Hugh Willmott and his research won Best Paper prizes in Human Relations (with Stephen Cummings and Kenneth Brown) and Academy of Management Learning and Education (with Stephen Cummings and Colm McLaughlin). Todd is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Management Learning and is a member of the editorial boards of Academy of Management Learning and Education and Organization.Stephen Cummings is Professor of Strategy and Innovation at Te Herenga Waka – Victoria University of Wellington. Stephen is pakeha and Tangata Tiriti (a New Zealander without Māori ancestry). His heritage is primarily Irish.

• Chapter 1 Why another book on management theory?Chapter 2 The Classical School: Looking again at the foundations of management theoryChapter 3 Management theory discovers the human workerChapter 4 Fitting the worker to the organization: Personality, groups, teams and cultureChapter 5 Heroic leaders and the glorification of changeChapter 6 The rise of ethics and corporate social responsibilityChapter 7 Conclusion: The past, present and future of management theory

Relentlessly probing the field′s foundations, the authors fully overturn the conventional wisdom of management. Their gift is a vast space for imagining new futures. For the first time since the field began, limitless possibility is a realistic framework for moving forward.