Management education and the theatre of the absurd

Starkey, Ken; Tempest, Sue; Cinque, S.

doi:10.1177/1350507619875894

Authors

KEN STARKEY kenneth.starkey@nottingham.ac.uk
Professor of Management and Organisational Learning

SUE TEMPEST sue.tempest@nottingham.ac.uk
Professor of Strategic Management and Learning

S. Cinque

Abstract

In this paper we adopt a humanities perspective to reflect on the nature of business schools and management education (Vargish, 1991; March & Weil, 2005; Adler, 2006; McAuley & Sims, 2009). Business schools have been criticised for becoming the “hired hands” of business (Khurana, 2007) to the detriment of a higher purpose, institutions that champion a utilitarian morality, the shallowness and indeed the dangers of which are revealed in various business scandals and especially the financial crisis of 2007-8, the effects of which cast a long shadow over today’s economic and social landscape. This has led to the criticism that business schools have lost part of their essential “philosophic connection” to issues of humanity and human identities (Augier & March, 2011: 233-4). We argue that one way to encourage philosophical reconnection is to expand management education’s engagement with the humanities (Czarniawska & Gagliardi, 2006).

Citation

Starkey, K., Tempest, S., & Cinque, S. (2019). Management education and the theatre of the absurd. Management Learning, 50(5), 591-606. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350507619875894

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Aug 16, 2019
Online Publication Date	Oct 22, 2019
Publication Date	Nov 1, 2019
Deposit Date	Sep 4, 2019
Publicly Available Date	Sep 6, 2019
Journal	Management Learning
Print ISSN	1350-5076
Electronic ISSN	1461-7307
Publisher	SAGE Publications
Peer Reviewed	Peer Reviewed
Volume	50
Issue	5
Pages	591-606
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1177/1350507619875894
Keywords	Management of Technology and Innovation; Strategy and Management; General Decision Sciences
Public URL	https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/2562797
Publisher URL	https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1350507619875894
Related Public URLs	https://journals.sagepub.com/home/mlq
Additional Information	Copyright © 2019 by SAGE Publications