Fads, Fashions and Fantasies: Reflections on Management Trends and on University Business Schools

Abstract

Why do so many managers look to gurus? Why do they take such an uncritical approach to fads and fashions? This lecture examines the role of management gurus and contrast it with the role of university business schools. Discussed is the phenomenon of management fads and the way in which they have had an impact on management fashion out of proportion to their real merits, and speculate about the reasons why management thought should be so prone to ‘faddism’.