The coming crisis of western management education

The aim of this paper is to explore the contention that Western Management Education has entered a period of “crisis” and to examine the implications of such a development. Drawing on historical studies of management education in America and Europe, four modes of management “formation” are identified, each of which has been dominant in a particular period. From its preparadigmatic beginnings management education has been successively transformed under an “old” and latterly a “new” paradigm. Current changes in and critiques of the “new” paradigm imply that Western Management Education is entering a postparadigmatic mode. The implications of this postparadigmatic turn are considered in relation to management practice, management knowledge, and management “formation.” An earlier version of this paper was presented to the Annual Conference of the British Academy of Management, Aston University, Birmingham, September 16–18, 1996.