Are Management Fashions Dangerous for Organizations?

摘要

Management fashions have a strong effect on both managers and their decision-making. The phenomenon has been observed since the late 1980s, with managers ostensibly continuing to be attracted by “fashionable” models and concepts. The present article has a twofold objective. On one hand, it analyses academic efforts in this field by undertaking a state of the art; on the other, it explores management fashions’ potential danger for organizations by reviewing their characteristics, life cycles and processes of creation and dissemination. The analysis also reveals that management fashions constitute in and of themselves a minor risk and can even help to drive a company forward through incremental as opposed to major changes.