A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book about Management Theory

Todd Bridgman (@toddbridgman) is Associate Professor in the School of Management at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Todd completed his PhD in organization studies at the University of Cambridge. His research interests lie at the intersection of management history, management education and critical management studies. In particular, he is interested in challenging conventional histories of management that appear in textbooks and writing alternative histories as a way of rethinking how management is taught to students. Todd edited The Oxford Handbook of Critical Management Studies (Oxford University Press, 2009) with Mats Alvesson and Hugh Willmott and his research won Best Paper prizes in Human Relations (with Stephen Cummings and Kenneth Brown) and Academy of Management Learning and Education (with Stephen Cummings and Colm McLaughlin). Todd is Co-Editor-in-Chief of the international journal Management Learning and is a member of the editorial boards of Academy of Management Learning and Education and Organization. Stephen Cummings (@theatomnz) is Professor of Strategy and Innovation and Co-Director of The Atom Innovation Space, at Victoria University of Wellington. He completed his PhD at Warwick Business School. Stephen's research investigates how assumptions about history can limit innovation and he is currently Co-Chair of the Critical Management Studies Division at The Academy of Management. His recent books include Handbook of Management and Creativity (Edward Elgar, 2014 - with Chris Bilton), Strategy Builder (Wiley, 2015 - with Duncan Angwin), A New History of Management (Cambridge University Press, 2015 - with Todd Bridgman, John Hassard and Michael Rowlinson), and the forthcoming A New History of Sustainable Management (Palgrave - with Todd Bridgman). His article, Unfreezing Change as Three Steps published in Human Relations (with Todd Bridgman and Kenneth Brown) has been downloaded over 200,000 times.

Chapter 1 Why another book on management theory? Chapter 2 The Classical School: Looking again at the foundations of management theory Chapter 3 Management theory discovers the human worker Chapter 4 Fitting the worker to the organization: Personality, groups, teams and culture Chapter 5 Heroic leaders and the glorification of change Chapter 6 The rise of ethics and corporate social responsibility Chapter 7 Conclusion: The past, present and future of management theory

Relentlessly probing the field's foundations, the authors fully overturn the conventional wisdom of management. Their gift is a vast space for imagining new futures. For the first time since the field began, limitless possibility is a realistic framework for moving forward. -- Ellen O'Connor Todd Bridgman and Stephen Cummings make studying management theory very different to what you might expect. Instead of going through the same tired old cliches, they breathe new life into the subject by taking an excitingly critical approach. What's more, they write with a light touch that makes reading their book straightforward but at the same time both refreshing and invigorating. -- Mark Learmonth If our goal for students is memorizing indubitable facts and seeing the world from a managerialist perspective, then any of the existing long, boring, and expensive texts on management will do just fine. But if educating our students about management involves critical thinking, questioning basic assumptions, and looking at things from different perspectives, then Bridgman and Cummings' "short, interesting, and cheap" book is mandatory reading. -- Thomas G. Cummings Bridgman and Cummings do it again - produce a user-friendly, entertaining and profoundly informative book on management. The book is tailor-made for faculty and students alike who want to understand the relationship between historical context, management theory and the application of management practice. Yet, do we need "another book on management?" Yes, if it informs through critique of standard works on management and yes if its written by Todd Bridgman and Steve Cummings. -- Albert J. Mills I recommend this textbook for teachers and students alike and will be using it as an aid to learning to thinking differently on my own module. I was engaged by the authors' conversational style and stimulated to reflect on my assumptions, which is the hallmark of critical reflection. This small book is replete with an unusually large number of incisive and important ideas, which is a testament to authors' knowledge, identity work and sociological imagination. -- Guy Huber * Academy of Management Learning and Education *