Interesting article in the June issue of The Atlantic Monthly.  It is called "The Management Myth" and is written by Matthew Stewart, a former management consultant.  Excerpt from the article:

"As a principal and founding partner of a consulting firm that eventually grew to 600 employees, I interviewed, hired, and worked alongside hundreds of business-school graduates, and the impression I formed of the M.B.A. experience was that it involved taking two years out of your life and going deeply into debt, all for the sake of learning how to keep a straight face while using phrases like "out-of-the-box thinking," "win-win situation" and "core competencies."  When it came to picking teammates, I generally held out higher hopes for those individuals who had used their university years to learn about something other than business administration."

One could argue that even "teammates" is M.B.A. consultant/corporate speak.  But I totally agree with everything Mr. Stewart says in his excellent article which gives a history of where the whole notion of management experts started.    Mr. Stewart's background is in philosophy and he argues that "management theory is a sadly neglected subdiscipline of philosophy" and hopes that "philosophers will soon reclaim their rightful place as the educators of management."  Noble goal.

 

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