FROM ROVER TO NOWHERE: A CASE STUDY OF A MANAGEMENT FAD

Slobodan  Adžić; Nenad Marković; Milan Bubulj

doi:10.58898/ijmt.v2i1.48-58

Authors

Slobodan Adžić University Union – Nikola Tesla, Faculty of Management FAM, Serbia
Nenad Marković University Union – Nikola Tesla, Faculty of Management FAM, Serbia
Milan Bubulj University Union – Nikola Tesla, Faculty of Management FAM, Serbia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.58898/ijmt.v2i1.48-58

Keywords:

management, organization, Management Fads, Learning Organization, Rover

Abstract

On the ground of the Rover case, the authors were observed criticism of learning organization from the perspective of postmodernism and from the perspective of critical realism, excluding the perspective of positivism as disadvantageous. Postmodernists perspective is twofold, either an ideal that is close to a dream or a nightmare for its members. Learning organization is a postmodern approach to work that requires a paradigm change in the organization, but all postmodernist theses based on the paradigm change are problematic. From the perspective of critical realism, learning organization has failed to meet three objectives which are essential for any well-founded theory: a clear definition, practical operational advice for managers, and tools and instruments for measuring. The concept of learning organization ignores the fact that management rewards those who contribute to the success and punishes those who make the damage, the terms measurable purely in a financial form. The political question in business organizations is related to the fundamental question: for whose interest does the business organization exist, whether the interest of workers or the interest of capital? The legitimacy of managerial authority is a function of maximizing efficiency and effectiveness in the interests of capital. In a contemporary social context where capital dominates, the concept of a learning organization is naively apolitical. Therefore, the authors concluded that simplified recipes, as learning organization, are simply not relevant for modern organizations and they warn about useless journals that continue to promote the learning organization model.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Slobodan Adžić, University Union – Nikola Tesla, Faculty of Management FAM, Serbia
Nenad Marković, University Union – Nikola Tesla, Faculty of Management FAM, Serbia
Milan Bubulj, University Union – Nikola Tesla, Faculty of Management FAM, Serbia

References

Abrahamson, E. (1991). Managerial Fads and Fashions: The Diffusion and Refection of Innovations. Academy of Management Review, 16(3), 586–612. https://doi.org/10.5465/AMR.1991.4279484

Abrahamson, E. (2009). Necessary conditions for the study of fads and fashions in science. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 25(2), 235–239. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scaman.2009.03.005

Abrahamson, E., & Eisenman, M. (2008). Employee-management Techniques: Transient Fads or Trending Fashions? Administrative Science Quarterly, 53(4), 719–744.

Adžić, S. (2018). Learning organization: A fine example of a management fad. Business and Economic Horizons, 14(3), 477–487. https://doi.org/10.15208/beh.2018.34

Adžić, S. (2020). Comparative analysis of the learning organization articles in Serbian and Austrian academic journals. Ekonomika Preduzeća, 68(3–4), 280–293. https://doi.org/10.5937/EKOPRE2004280A

Adžić, S. (2021). Efektivno liderstvo u teoriji i praksi. Centralnoevropska asocijacija za razvoj i saradnju CEARS.

Adžić, S., Milunović, M., & Vujić, N. (2022). Research procedures in management and business economics research. Oditor, 8(3S), 317–336.

Balogun, J., & Hope Hailey, V. (2008). Exploring strategic change. FT Prentice Hall Financial Times.

BBC. (2005, April 7). End of the road near for MG Rover. BBC. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4422705.stm

Bort, S., & Kieser, A. (2011). Fashion in Organization Theory: An Empirical Analysis of the Diffusion of Theoretical Concepts. Organization Studies, 32(5), 655–681. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840611405427

Bower, D. G. (1993). The learning organization: A Rover perspective. Executive Development, 6(2), 3.

Button, L. (2012). BMW takeover of rover. http://site.plummo.com/category.php?licenseKey=37e6d44add3dfcb44ac279ea80185e7e&ID=1778

Clark, T. (2004). Strategy viewed from a management fashion perspective. European Management Review, 1(1), 105–111. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.emr.1500004

Coopey, J. (1995). The Learning Organization, Power, Politics and Ideology Introduction. Management Learning, 26(2), 193–213. https://doi.org/10.1177/135050769502600204

David, R. J., & Strang, D. (2006). When Fashion Is Fleeting: Transitory Collective Beliefs and the Dynamics of Tqm Consulting. Academy of Management Journal, 49(2), 215–233. https://doi.org/10.5465/AMJ.2006.20786058

Driver, M. (2002). The learning organization: Foucauldian gloom or Utopian sunshine? Human Relations, 55(1), 33–53.

Elkjaer, B. (2001). The learning organization: An undelivered promise. Management Learning, 32(4), 437– 452.

Flory, M. (2005). Management fads: The case of the self-managed team. Benchmarking, 12(3), 275–282.

Furnham, P. A. (2004). Management and Myths: Challenging the Fads, Fallacies and Fashions. Palgrave Macmillan.

Grieves, J. (2008). Why we should abandon the idea of the learning organization. The Learning Organization, 15(6), 463–473. http://dx.doi.org.proxy.kobson.nb.rs:2048/10.1108/09696470810907374

Hislop, D. (2010). Knowledge management as an ephemeral management fashion? Journal of Knowledge Management, 14(6), 779–790. https://doi.org/10.1108/13673271011084853

History of Rover Group Ltd. – FundingUniverse. (2017). Fundinguniverse.Com. http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/rover-group-ltd-history/

Howcroft, D., & Trauth, E. M. (2005). Handbook of Critical Information Systems Research: Theory And Application. Edward Elgar Publishing.

Jung, N., & Kieser, A. (2012). Consultants In The Management Fashion Arena. In T. Clark & M. Kipping (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Management Consulting. Oxford University Press. http://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199235049.001.0001/oxfordhb-978019923 5049-e-16

Kieser, A., & Leiner, L. (2009). Why the Rigour–Relevance Gap in Management Research Is Unbridgeable. Journal of Management Studies, 46(3), 516–533. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2009.00831.x

Kotler, P., & Keller, K. (2008). Marketing Management (13th ed.). Prentice Hall.

Loermans, J. (2002). Synergizing the learning organization and knowledge management. Journal of Knowledge Management, 6(3), Article 3.

Mintzberg, H. (2013). Simply Managing: What Managers Do — and Can Do Better. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Naidoo, K. K. (2004). Fundamental concepts: The solution to contemporary management problems--A sine qua non or non sequitur? South African Journal of Business Management, 35(3), 47–55.

Näslund, D. (2008). Lean, six sigma and lean sigma: Fads or real process improvement methods? Business Process Management Journal, 14(3), 269–287. https://doi.org/10.1108/14637150810876634

Rethinking the cause of management fads: Why blaming the consultant is the easy way out. (2005). Strategic Direction, 21(4), 28–29.

Simm, D. (2005). Researching Rover, OL/LO and Performance. Lancaster MBA.

Symon, G. (2003). Consilio manuque: The learning organization paradigm and the problem of unity. Tamara : Journal of Critical Postmodern Organization Science, 2(2), 36–54.

Whiteley, S. (2012, May 10). Business Studies—Takeovers and Mergers—One that went badly wrong (BMW and Rover). Tutor2u.

http://www.tutor2u.net/blog/index.php/business-studies/comments/buss4-mergers-acquisiitons-one-that-went-wrong.-bmw-and-rover

Williams, R. (2004). Management fashions and fads: Understanding the role of consultants and managers in the evolution of ideas. Management Decision, 42(5/6), 769–780.