False Prophets

A new book called "False Prophets: The Gurus Who Created Modern Management and Why Their Ideas Are Bad for Business," by James Hoopes, raises some very serious questions about the plethora of management ideas and philosophies circulating throughout society. Hoopes, an historian, looks at the spectrum of management gurus, including Frederick Taylor, Elton Mayo, Edward Deming, and Peter Drucker.

In the book's introduction, Hoopes says "this is a story of misfits and phonies, ruthless bosses and generous philosophers, shrewd executives and honest engineers. They were the management gurus who led the way in reconciling Americans to corporate life, sometimes by improving our understanding of human organization, sometimes by intellectural chicanery aimed at making us feel freer than we really are. They were the ersatz set of founding fathers (and mothers), jury-rigging an informal constitution for our other, unofficial government, not the political institutions that keep us free but the managerial corporations that make us rich."

In a nutshell, he says that the ideas of our leading management gurus are good for one thing: business profits, and contrary to claims otherwise, many of these ideas do little to liberate or advance society and the human condition. While silent on the subject of economic development, I suspect that Hoopes would level equal criticism at our avante garde thinking about how to make businesses, places and people more competitive.

As an historian should do, Hoopes reminds us of history and trends over time. That is a useful contribution of his book. He hits Tom Peters over the head for trying to make work "cool and groovy." Hoopes says the "Wow thing" is devious and just another way to bolster the productivity of the masses that work for other people. He also reminds us that Peters is far from the first to try to make work fun and still productive.

Where does Hoopes come out on the issue of the spiritual rewards of business? In a word, he says its overblown and yet another ploy to get people to work harder and make more money for their bosses.

Hoopes' parting shot is at Enron and the corporate financial reporting scandel that we are still trying to work through. And yes, I am certain he would have had something to say about Martha Stewart, had her situation occurred before the publishing of False Prophets.

This is a healthy attack of management philosophy and our business sages. Every once and a while it helps to hear another take on reality. While I do not share the depths of Hoopes' skepticism about business intentions, I am inclined to agree that all of us have been taken for a ride by more than a few management ideas and theories.

Are there lessons in all this for economic development? Yes, there are many, starting with the efficacy of organizing our economic development world on business strategy ideas. It does not make sense to turn communities into businesses. Would Hoopes even dare to question the latest "cool buzz" in economic development about creativity? Probably so. And yes, he would probably say some things that would make Richard Florida flinch.

I say it sometimes takes a shake-up to make us wake-up!

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