Re: Philosophy of Mgmt LO3338

JOHNWFIELD@aol.com
Sat, 21 Oct 1995 08:49:29 -0400

Replying to LO3297 --

The various comments on the philosophy of management, including comments
from Jack Hirschfield, Stuart Umpleby, Peter Vaill, and Ivan Blanco,
require a joint response from me. I replied separately to Stuart, but
lost my reply.

Stuart says that Peter believes that "trying to structure knowledge of
management in the form of a science will not only not be effective but is
probably counterproductive". Ivan says that "I think tht all theories of
management (if such theories really exist) are being treated the same
way." He adds that "we are not incorporating new concepts, models, forms,
etc." Then he goes on to say that "the most important skill (?) for us to
develop in our learning partners is learning how to learn".

I am becoming a broken record on this list. Please read C. S. Peirce's
1877 and 1878 papers titled "The Fixation of Belief" and "How to Make Our
Ideas Clear".

The biggest problem with business school faculty is that they don't know
how long the world has been here and how many people have thought about
and contributed to the things that those faculty need to know to teach
potential managers and leaders. The biggest failing they have is, like
the managers they have trained, they don't read anything. The biggest
mistake they make is to thing that they can talk authoritatively about
what "we" know or don't known. They are reinforced by the terrible
journals that the big-name institutions publish that purport to reveal
knowledge about management.

If you want to read an eye-opener in this field, ask Michael McMaster to
sell you a copy of his very readable recent book called THE INTELLIGENCE
ADVANTAGE.

If you want to learn about how a science aimed at management improvement
is benefiting management in critical areas, get in touch with Dr. Scott M.
Staley at the Ford Motor Company. He can give you chapter and verse about
real-life management applications of science.
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Host's Note: The orig note included Scott Staley's phone number, but I'm
worried that, with 1500 subscribers, we might easily launch too many
callers on him. John, would you give us a summary of what you think he
would say?
-----

JOHN WARFIELD
Johnwfield@aol.com