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Management as a Regulated Profession

An Essay

Leeds University Business School, Open University Business School, and Cranfield School of Management

The history of management education shows the rigor and relevance gap has been around for centuries, well before its appearance in the United States. Nor is it peculiar to management. It is neither germane to our discipline's present difficulties nor an appropriate focus for our critics. Rather, history suggests we finally parted company with managers after the 1959 Ford and Carnegie reports, as we presumed rationality alone was the sufficient basis for understanding them and their doings. These reports helped us turn management education into a profession even as management itself has yet to become one. To return closer to managers, the author suggests rationality captures one dimension of their practice, whereas the notion of business as an art form might capture its complement. Reformed art education, covering art's history, aesthetics, criticism, and production, provides a framework for studying the managerial art, and leads us to a rich, dynamic theory of the firm.

Key Words: business schools • professional education • MBA

Journal of Management Inquiry, Vol. 16, No. 1, 32-42 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1056492606297542


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