Management is the solution: Now what was the problem? On the fragile basis for managerialism

Mats Alvesson and Stefan Sveningsson

Scandinavian Journal of Management, 2011, vol. 27, issue 4, 349-361

Abstract: This paper critically investigates the impact and meaning of managerialism in a pharmaceutical firm by exploring its shaky basis. Managers’ explanations of the failure in research leading to new products showed considerable variety. This reflects the absence of any shared understanding of research inefficiencies and difficulties to determine the roots of the problems. Despite this people blame bad management and put hope to improved responsibility of managers. The study highlights the ambiguity of causes of the research inefficiencies and how this is suppressed as well as exploited by the introduction of a vague managerialist agenda.

Keywords: Management; Managerialism; Ambiguity; Knowledge-intensive firm; Knowledge work (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:scaman:v:27:y:2011:i:4:p:349-361

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DOI: 10.1016/j.scaman.2011.08.002

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