The Memoir Spot
A snapshot review of a book related to the Non-fiction Feature
Also in Bulletin #46:
The Non-fiction Feature: When McKinsey Comes to Town by Walt Bogdanich and Michael Forsythe
The Product Spot: ProPublica – McKinsey’s Rules
The Pithy Take
The Management Myth, written by former (disillusioned) management consultant Matthew Stewart, is filled with questions that many of us might have wondered: What is a management consultant? What do they do? Why are they needed? Are they making this up?
Stewart offers a fascinating look into the history of management (and the creation of multiple management theories), why management theory is pseudoscience and why we are wrong to cling to it so desperately.
It’s an easy read, and he does a good job not only explaining terms, but also detailing where they came from and how they are used in consulting today. He also pokes a lot, a lot, of fun at consultancy and the corporate world generally, so if you are in those fields and are highly sensitive to those issues, this book is probably good for you.
But the modern idea of management is right enough to be dangerously wrong and it has led us seriously astray. It has sent us on a mistaken quest to seek scientific answers to unscientific questions…
Above all, it contributes to a misunderstanding about the sources of our prosperity, leading us to neglect the social, moral, and political infrastructure on which our well-being depends.
The Management Myth
Author: Matthew Stewart
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
352 pages | 2009
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