The Flow of Management Ideas: Rethinking Managerial Audiences

The widespread promotion of management ideas, their regular inclusion in textbooks and business school curricula and their use in organizational change programs has engendered debates about the impact of these ideas on management and organizational practice. Based on analyses of managerial audience members' activities and related meaning-making prior to, during and after guru events with leading management thinkers, this book sheds new light on how management practitioners come to use management ideas in the different relevant contexts of their working lives. The authors argue that a broader, more differentiated and more dynamic view of managerial audiences is essential in understanding the impact of management ideas as well as the nature of contemporary managerial work. For scholars and students in organisation studies, knowledge management and management consultancy, as well as reflective management practitioners.

Table of Contents:
1. The Flow of Management Ideas; 2. Studying Audiences; 3. Creating a Positive Atmosphere Among the Audience; 4. Conveying The Applicability of Ideas to Audience Members; 5. Defining Audience Orientations; 6. Understanding Audience Dynamism; 7. Managerial Audiences in Organizational Contexts; 8. Managerial Audiences and Fan Involvement; 9. Conclusion; Appendices; Index.

About the Author :
Stefan Heusinkveld is associate professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. His research concentrates on the production and consumption of management ideas, and professions. He has published widely on these topics, and has edited special issues in various academic journals. He is co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Management Ideas (2019). Marlieke van Grinsven is assistant professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Her research focuses on narrative constructions of organizational realities in processes of change. She is particularly interested in the uptake and translation of management knowledge and the identity processes involved. She has published in various organization and management journals. Claudia Groß is assistant professor at the Radboud University, Nijmegen. Her research focuses on the flow of management ideas and how to design organizations that support ethical behaviour. She has published in various journals and communicates her academic insights to the wider public via TV, newspaper and internet contributions. David Greatbatch is Honorary Visiting Professor in the York Management School at the University of York. His research focuses on the use of oratory by management gurus and corporate executives. He has published widely in leading international journals and is co-author of Management Speak: Why We Listen to What Management Gurus Tell Us (with Timothy Clark, 2005). Timothy Clark is Provost and Professor at Singapore Management University. His research focuses on oratory in management guru lectures and the nature of consultancy work. The publications emanating from this work include Management Speak (with David Greatbatch, 2005), and The Oxford Handbook of Management Consulting (with Matthias Kipping, 2012).

Review :
'The Flow of Management Ideas brings together and develops the best research on what managers make of new or re-packaged management ideas. While the ideas themselves and those who promote them are familiar to many, it is remarkable that until now, we have known little of their audiences. This book unpacks the ways in which managers use ideas and the gurus who promote them and says as much about management as it does ideas.' Andrew Sturdy, Professor in Management, University of Bristol