The Dark Side of Management: A Secret History of Management Theory

What isn’t management and why doesn’t it matter? This compelling book leads the reader away from the stories told by managers and management theories to show the secret history of the field.

In characterizing the progress of management as a war on workers, this book offers a controversial and revealing alternative intellectual history of this overwhelming discipline. The author employs a unique range of theories and sources, including the founding fathers of management, US labour and social history, and earlier intellectual figures such as Marx and Weber alongside the contemporary insights of Foucault and European and American workerist and post-workerist thought, to shed light on the world of management.

This book is key reading for researchers and students across the social sciences. With a controversial and stimulating approach, it also engages readers with a general interest in business and management issues.

Gerard Hanlon is Professor of Organizational Sociology at Queen Mary University of London, UK.