|
Rationale
Ever since Plato’s
Socrates raised the question of how we should manage the state
philosophers have touched on issues of management, business and
organisation. Awareness, however, is now growing that philosophy
can offer much to the theory and practice of management education.
While the early business schools focused first on finance and later
the social sciences, in recent years there have been growing calls
for management to be treated as a humanity.
With management
theorists and researchers struggling to find a ‘core discipline’ for
their field, philosophy offers more promise than many candidates.
Philosophical techniques and approaches can help clarify and
evaluate the aims and values of management education. Concepts
commonly treated by philosophers figure increasingly in management
debates; power, authority, rights, justice, virtues, citizenship,
community, property, value, knowledge, rationality, dialogue,
responsibility, passion, and emotion are just some of the most
salient. In addition, managers find some of their own core concepts
problematical - such as manager, leader, motivation, communication,
system, organisation, measurement, control - and the scope for
philosophy to assist here is obvious. The different philosophical
traditions such as analytical philosophy, critical theory,
phenomenology and post-modern theory offer a choice of routes to
tackling problems managers face.
In addition,
philosophical methods offer managers new ways of enhancing personal
and team capacities such as reflection, surfacing assumptions,
holistic thinking, analysis, critical and creative thinking,
decision-making, self-understanding and growth.
Finally philosophers
throughout history have produced work that managers can find
relevant, accessible and stimulating if contextualised and presented
appropriately.
Current Practice
While Peter Senge
has remarked, “the quality of our thinking affects everything we
do”, philosophy has too often stayed on the margins of management
education and practice. All too often ‘business ethics’ has
appeared in a modular ghetto while the management curriculum remains
unaffected by the contribution of philosophy - to its design or
implementation. Among many managers in some cultures, reflection
and theory are often treated as if they were hostile to effective
practice.
It was not always
so. In 1632, the precursor to the University of Amsterdam - the
Athenaeum Illustre - was founded to educate students in Trade and
Philosophy. Today, fresh approaches are evident. One leading
business school is under student pressure to raise the profile of
corporate responsibility in the curriculum. At the University of
British Columbia the award winning MBA Core programme is staffed by
five faculty - including a philosopher, Wayne Norman, alongside
experts in accounting, marketing, organisational behaviour,
information technology and operations - working together “in the
same room, five days a week, for four months”. (http://www.ethics.ubc.ca/people/norman/index.htm).
Copenhagen Business
School has offered a BSc in Business Administration and Philosophy
since 1996. “The philosophical dimension trains students in
argumentation, in recognising general contexts, incorporating
values, and in understanding our time in a historical perspective -
all qualities greatly demanded in the knowledge-based society of the
future.” (http://www.cbs.dk/stud_pro/hafiluk.shtml)
More recently an MSc
in Business Administration and Philosophy has been launched at the
Copenhagen Business School. It builds on the skills, concepts and
themes taught on the above programme, “specifically:
-
the phenomenon of
knowledge (truth, validity and applicability)
-
the basis for
actions in attitudes and values
-
the rhetoric dimension of
language (management language and aesthetic communication)
In addition, it
emphasises the importance of the above dimensions within and in
relation to business economics. The dynamics between the economic
and philosophical dimension are maintained, and the two perspectives
simultaneously integrated.” (http://www.cbs.dk/stud_pro/cmfiluk.shtml)
At the Free
University of Amsterdam an MA in Philosophy of Organisation is in
plan, the latest in a series of initiatives bringing philosophical
thinking to management through the Prato Centre. (http://www.ph.vu.nl/prato/eng/)
Alongside the
journal Philosophy of Management (formerly Reason in Practice) a
philosophy of management textbook is now in preparation. Senior
executives at BP have been exposed to philosophical ideas as part of
their development. And outside the academy, philosophical
practitioners have for many years employed philosophical methods
with their clients, especially in Australia, the Netherlands,
Scandinavia and the United States.
View the call for papers
|
|
From Philosophy to Management and Back Again
Thursday 20
November 2003
Hosted by The
University
of Gloucestershire Business School
Booking
Form
|
Name
|
|
|
Organisation
|
|
|
Student
number (if applicable) |
|
|
Course
(if applicable) |
|
|
Address |
Postcode: |
|
Telephone
number |
|
|
Email
address
|
|
Please book
me the following for the Philosophy of Management seminar:
____
(quantity) Standard Place(s) at £50.00 each
____
(quantity) Full-time Student Place(s) at £25.00 each
Please tick
your preferred payment option:
Cheque – please make payable to The University of
Gloucestershire
Credit/Debit card (Visa, Mastercard or Switch only) – please
complete your card details on the Credit Card Payments form at the
end of this booking form.
Invoice – please invoice my institution at the following
address:
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
Print your
name and institution/organisation, as it should appear on your name
badge:
Do you have
any special dietary requirements:
Do you have
any additional information you feel may be of use to us:
Please now
send the booking form, along with your cheque or credit card payment
form if applicable, to:
Sue Pearce
Business
Development Coordinator
The
University of Gloucestershire Business School
Pallas Villa
Park Campus
Cheltenham
Glos. GL50
2QF
Tel: 01242
544077
Fax: 01242
543208
In the event
of any query, please contact Sue on the above telephone number or
via email at
spearce@glos.ac.uk.
Please note –
for security reasons credit card payment forms should be posted or
faxed and not sent via email.
·
Confirmation of your booking will be sent to you by
email.
·
Once payment has successfully been processed, a
receipt will be sent to you in the post.
|
