Confronting Managerialism: How the Business Elite and Their Schools Threw Our Lives Out of Balance

Confronting Managerialism offers a scathing critique of the influence of neoclassical economics and modern finance on business school teaching and management practice. Locke and Spender show that responsible management has given way to ‘managerialism’, whereby an elite caste of businessmen disconnected from any ethical considerations call the shots. The book traces the loss of managers’ earlier social concerns, amply encouraged by management education’s transformation since the 1960's, especially in the US. It also questions not only the social ethics of the US management caste but its management efficacy compared to systems of management that are highly employee participatory and dependent, such as in Germany and Japan. A unique, topical and controversial look at a subject that impacts us all.