From "Management Ideology" to "Management Fashion": A Comparative Analysis of Two Key Concepts in the Sociology of Management Knowledge

Abstract

How is the emerging research into "management fashion" related to the more established study of "management ideology?" To tackle this question, this paper presents a comparative analysis of these two concepts, which are both key concepts in the sociology of management knowledge, and of the two respective literatures that build on them. I show that the two literatures have much in common, both theoretically and methodologically; at the same time, they reflect quite different, and even complementary, perspectives on the social mechanisms through which management knowledge is created and disseminated. Then, the hypothesis is raised that in recent years, the study of management fashions has come to replace, at least in part, the study of management ideologies. The rise of "management fashion" as a research subject, and the concomitant retreat of "management ideology," are therefore attributed to fashion dynamics and to ideological developments in the academic field of management and organization studies.

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