Personal Growth and Sensitivity Training as Fashions in Management and Management Research

Thomas Andersson

International Studies of Management & Organization, 2008, vol. 38, issue 2, 71-96

Abstract: Management fashion is often described as moving in cycles, but the role of research in these waves is rather unclear. This study compares two management fashions: sensitivity training and personal growth. Sensitivity training is described as the first wave in the 1960s-1970s and personal growth as the second wave in the 1990s-2000s, when similar forms and activities were revived under a new name. Two doctoral theses studying the two fashions in 1979 and 2005 are compared to describe research fashion. The study shows that research and management surf on the same, or at least parallel, fashion waves. Furthermore, research in general and a doctoral thesis project in particular are related to identity work. Researchers draw on various fashions (in research and management) in terms of repetition (following the example of others) and difference (deviating from tradition), just as managers do.

Date: 2008
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DOI: 10.2753/IMO0020-8825380204

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