The Aesthetic Turn in Management

[6]Rhetoric and Myth in Management Fashion

Alfred Kieser

University of Mannheim

Abstract. A count of publications over a period of time indicates that management concepts come and go like fashions. After a discussion of theories of fashion in aesthetic and technical objects, it is argued that rhetoric, an aesthetic form, is the main fabric of management fashions and that therefore theories of fashion in aesthetic forms are generally applicable to explanations of management fashions. The rise and fall of management fashions, especially fashions in organizational design, will be analysed using a concept of an arena of management fashion. The most important players in this arena are authors of management books, publishers, management seminar organizers ...