MANAGEMENT EDUCATION - A POLEMIC

This paper is a polemic against the mainstream of management education. It is argued that this mainstream is managerialist in character and ignores critical management research. In replicating the notion of management as a set of morally and politically neutral techniques, management education re-enforces the commonsense technicism of many management students. The paper explores some of the problems and paradoxes of managerialism and technicism in management education, considers how these relate to current quality initiatives within higher education and, finally, points to some of the political implications of the issues raised.