Management Challenges for the 21st Century

1Management'sNew Paradigms

Why Assumptions Matter • Management Is Business Management • The One Right Organization • The One Right Way to Manage People • Technologies and End-Users Are Fixed and Given • Management’s Scope Is Legally Defined • Management’s Scope Is Politically Defined • The Inside Is Management’s Domain

Introduction

Why Assumptions Matter

BASIC ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT REALITY are the PARADIGMS of a social science, such as management. They are usually held subconsciously by the scholars, the writers, the teachers, the practitioners in the field. Yet those assumptions largely determine what the discipline—scholars, writers, teachers, practitioners—assumes to be REALITY.

The discipline’s basic assumptions about reality determine what ...