Whatever happened to management? —or why the dull stepchild?

Abstract

Management education is not making its best contribution because it neglects its core field and lacks a research base. Planning and control are traditional problems of top management, but they are still met with outmoded principles and rules of thumb. Quantitative methods have been embraced fervently; unfortunately, anyone who observes complex organizations knows that little resemblance exists between formal systems models of decision making and the real system of interaction. The laboratory-library-computer methodologies are not good for people problems; extended fieldwork is needed. Effective research may be that which concentrates on marginal changes rather than total success and that integrates structure, controls, and behavior. Without a research foundation, this field will continue to drift away from real problems toward the problems of functional specialties.