Herbert A. Simon on What Ails Business Schools: More than 'A Problem in Organizational Design'

We critically examine Herbert Simon's 1967 essay, ‘The business school: a problem in organizational design’. We consider this essay within the context of Simon's key ideas about organizations, particularly those closely associated with the ‘Carnegie perspective’ on organizations and how th...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of management studies 2012-05, Vol.49 (3), p.619-639
Main Authors: Khurana, Rakesh, Spender, J. C.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Business education
Business schools
Business studies
Carnegie perspective
Higher education
management education
Management research
Management science
MBA programs & graduates
Organization theory
Organizational structure
Research trends
Simon, Herbert Alexander
sociology of knowledge
Strategic planning
Studies
Teaching
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We critically examine Herbert Simon's 1967 essay, ‘The business school: a problem in organizational design’. We consider this essay within the context of Simon's key ideas about organizations, particularly those closely associated with the ‘Carnegie perspective’ on organizations and how they influenced the reinvention of American business schools in the post‐Second World War era, and were deeply influenced by the post‐War context and also were appropriated by the Ford and Carnegie Foundations to reform business school teaching and research. We argue that management educators misappropriated Simon's concept of an intellectually robust and relevant research and educational agenda for business schools that has in part contributed to the intellectual stasis that now characterizes business education research and its capacity to inform management practice.
ISSN:0022-2380
1467-6486
DOI:10.1111/j.1467-6486.2011.01040.x