Speaking For All Mankind

I recently read Matthew Stewart’s The Management Myth during my hiatus from blogging.  Mr. Stewart’s book is an expose of the myths that created the management consulting profession and his adventures at a typical management consulting firm.  He describes how Taylor’s experiments would not even make a good undergraduate research project and how the Hawthorne effect was never scientifically established.  Everyone from Peter Drucker to Tom Peters is shown to be more of a showman than a serious researcher in management science.   These sections are well-documented and were eye-opening for me.

In alternating chapters he describes his misadventures at a management consulting which was eerily similar to my times at various consulting firms.  His description of the type of analysis taught to neophyte consultants is quite illuminating for those who want to hire management consultants (especially the part about the “Whale”).

For a taste of what the book is like, you can read Mr. Stewart’s article in the Atlantic Monthly.