The Critique of Management

Towards a Philosophy and Ethics of Business Management

Vincent Blok

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781000482591
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Management
• Index: Business

This book reflects on the nature of business management to contribute to the development of a philosophy and ethics of management. It engages in conceptual engineering of management to delineate the phenomenon of management and, as a result, to open a new perspective on management beyond its self-evident conceptualization.

After questioning the self-evident concept of management, the author develops a philosophy of management with six dimensions of the nature of management: management as participation; management as resistance and responsive action; management as constitution of meaning; management as politico-economic governance; management as non-reductive stakeholder engagement; and management as epistemic insufficient entrepreneurship. These six dimensions of management are taken as points of departure to develop an integrated concept of business ethics, an individual competence for ethical business management, and a concept of ethical codes for corporate social responsible behavior. This new conception of philosophy of management and business ethics can guide future philosophical and empirical work on the nature of management.

The Critique of Management is an excellent resource for researchers, students, and professionals interested in philosophy of management, business ethics, and corporate social responsibility.

1 Setting the Scene: Opening Up the Self-evident Concept of Management

DOI: 10.4324/9781003231875-1

One way to open up the concept of management for philosophical reflection is by tracing the different meanings it has in history. Historical analysis can help us to question the self-evidence of the current association of management as managerial power and mechanism of control, to deconstruct the presupposed concepts that always already structure our understanding of management, and to explore the sedimentary conceptual structures which show themselves in the words and notions we self-evidently use in our understanding of management practices.

Although most philosophers in the history of philosophy did not develop an explicit philosophy of management, there seems to be at least one exception. One of the first philosophical conceptualizations of business management occurred in the work of Xenophon (2013). In Oeconomicus, published around 385 B.C., Xenophon introduces a dialogue between Socrates and Critobulus, a wealthy young man, and Ischomachus, a noble and successful manager, about oikonomia.¹ Oikonomia, as Xenophon understood it, is not comparable with our contemporary understanding of economics and is primarily concerned with household management (Deslandes, 2018). The fact that oikonomia originally concerns household management, rather than economics, may also explain why economists are often hesitant to read Xenophon as an economist (Lowry, 1979). The domain of the household is not limited to the private sphere of the house in which we live, but extents to all property that enables the owner of the household to make a living. This legitimizes us to take Xenophon’s philosophical reflections on household management as a preliminary philosophy of business management. In this chapter, we first explore Xenophon’s philosophy of management (Section 4) and the knowledge, skills, and virtues that good management requires (Section 5). Subsequently, we confront Xenophon’s conceptuality with the self-evident understanding of management in contemporary management science to open-up the self-evidence of the concept of management for critical reflection, first by considering it from the perspective of Xenophon’s work (Section 6) and then by considering it from the perspective of the grand challenges of our time like global warming (Section 7). Our reflections will raise particular questions that challenge the self-evident conceptualization of management in terms of managerial power and mechanism of control.

4 Xenophon's Philosophy of Management

One of the first philosophical conceptualizations of management occurred in the work of Xenophon. In the Oeconomicus, business management concerns the totality of the assets of the owner. Although these assets are a necessary condition to make a living, it is not a sufficient condition as these assets have to be managed in order to become profitable and generate wealth for the owner (Xenophon, 2013: 1.15, 3.1–3.3). What are the main characteristics of business management that can be found in Xenophon’s work? In this section, we identify the main characteristics of management based on our reading of the Oeconomicus. In this effort, we abandon the contextual factors that can be found in Xenophon’s work, as he lived in an agricultural society and in a period where management mainly concerned the management of slaves.

Establishment and Governance of a Functioning Order of the Business in Order to Make Profit

A first characteristic of business management concerns the functional order and ordered arrangement of the business. The business is led by a superintendent (episkopos) who is in control of the business, even in case of accidents and unforeseen situations, so that it’s ordered functioning is guaranteed and maintained. This control of the manager is compared with a ship:

Now I saw this man in his spare time inspecting everything that is needed as a matter of course on the ship. I was surprised to see him looking them over and asked what he was doing. “Sir”, he answered, “I am looking to see how the ship’s equipment is stored, in case of any accident, or whether anything is missing or mixed up with other equipment”. (Xenophon, 2013: 8.15–16)

Business management is understood here as the establishment and governance of a functioning order in which all natural resources have their proper place, all human resources have their proper task and role,² and the business manager regulates and governs the proper use of these natural and human resources in order to make profit. This involves the structuring of the business and the assignment of an appropriate place to each part of the business. Xenophon speaks about grain that has to remain dry and wine that has to remain cool, but we can extent this to the appropriate design of the production and distribution process of a business, the structure of business units, etc. Next, it concerns the placement of employees in this functioning order. The first characteristic of business management that we can discern is the establishment and governance of a functioning order of the business in order to make profit.

Establishment and Governance of a Functioning Order of the Business in order to Evoke Public Admiration

A second characteristic of business management occurs if we consider the ordered functioning of the ship we encountered before. In first instance, the establishment and governance of a functioning order of the business enables the manager to act appropriately in times of setback or unforeseen circumstances that threaten the survival of the ship in stormy weather. But another aspect of this functioning order is that it constitutes a “paradise” of beauty that evokes admiration (Xenophon, 2013: 4.13, 4.21). We can think of Xenophon’s example of the ship in which all equipment is well stored – for example, rope is not lying around but well-ordered and organized – and that provides peace of mind and energy to work in, but we can easily extend this example to well-established organization structures in which all disparate tasks and roles work together as one (Xenophon, 2013: 8.7). Xenophon provides the example of a chorus:

A chorus is a combination of people; but when its members do as they please, it becomes mere confusion, and there is no pleasure in watching it; but when they move and sing in an orderly fashion, then those same people at once seem worth watching and worth hearing. (Xenophon, 2013: 8.3)

This order is not only a functional order but evokes admiration because of its beauty – everything is more beautiful when set out in order according to Xenophon (2013: 8.20) – and nothing is so good for human beings as order (Xenophon, 2013: 8.3). It is important to acknowledge that for the Greeks, the beautiful does not only has aesthetic but also moral significance. The second characteristic of business management that we discern is that the manager establishes and governs the functioning order of the business in such a way that its (beautiful) order evokes public admiration.

Establishment and Governance of a Functioning Order of the Business to Serve Both Private and Public Interests

A third characteristic of business management is that the ordered functioning of the business does not only serve the private interests of the owner of the business – for example, a grand harvest – but also the public interest of society. A farm does not only provide food and luxury by which people live and enjoy their live but also the environment in which public services can be practiced. Xenophon provides the example of agriculture that enables man to work on the land and prepare them to defend the state:

She gives increased strength through exercise to those who labour with their own hands and hardens the overseers of the work by rousing them early and forcing them to move about briskly. For on a farm no less than in the city the most important operations have their fixed time. Again, if a man wants to defend his city by serving in the cavalry, farming is his most efficient partner in furnishing upkeep for this horse; if in the infantry, it energizes his body. (Xenophon, 2013: 5.4–5, 11.17)

We can easily abstract from this particular context and argue that management establishes and governs a functioning order that serves simultaneously private – sales of food products – and public purposes – serving a healthy society by promoting a healthy lifestyle. In the end, business management is not a goal in itself but should enable the business manager to serve the interests of his or her friends and the state according to Xenophon (2013: 6.9). Only those who serve the state and are loyal to society are held in the highest esteem by the state (Xenophon, 2013: 6.10). The third characteristic of business management that we can discern is that the business manager establishes and governs the functioning order of the business in such a way that it integrates public and private interests.

Engagement in the Business Operations via Direct Labour

In order to establish and govern the functioning order of the business, the manager has to engage in the business operations himself via direct labour according to Xenophon. This seems to be strange for a business owner in the Greek context, as labour is scorned and held in low regard in ancient Greece (Xenophon, 2013: 4.2). But Xenophon is more positive about direct engagement in the business operations of the business manager via direct labour – planting, for instance (Xenophon, 2013: 4.22–24) – as it contributes to their happiness as purpose of life (eudaimonia) (Xenophon, 2013: 4.25). The joy of direct labour provides satisfaction and self-confidence, as their mastery in the production of the products and services that the business provides matures.³ Another aspect of the positive assessment of direct labour may be the double purpose of business operations that we encountered before, for instance, farming (private interest) and preparing to defend the state (public interest). One other important reason for direct involvement in labour is that an important task of managers is to teach their employees, which requires know-how as we will see. Here, direct labour is not a goal in itself but serves the manager’s aim to fulfil his or her role as business manager and his or her role as public servant. The fourth characteristic of business management is the involvement of the manager in the business operations via direct labour.

Engagement in the Business Operations via the Work Done by Other People

The fifth characteristic of business management concerns the manager’s engagement in the business operations via the work of other people, that is, the management of his or her subordinates to perform all roles and tasks in a proper way. His or her task is to give subordinates a proper role and task and manage them in such a way that they are not imprisoned and enforced to perform their task in a proper way, but that they are free and willing to work for the business manager (Xenophon, 2013: 3.4).

At a first level, he has to cooperate with his wife in order to become successful according to Xenophon. Although Xenophon argues that the business manager has to instruct his wife in the right way of doing things (Xenophon, 2013: 3.11), and with this, may make the impression that he sees his wife merely as subordinate like Aristotle,⁴ it is clear that Xenophon is in fact very positive about the role of the wife in business management and that he stresses cooperation and partnership with her in growing the business:

I think that the wife who is a good partner in the household contributes just as much as her husband to its good; because the income for the most part is the result of the husband’s exertions, but the expenses are controlled mostly by the wife’s management. If both do their part well, the estate is increased; if they act incompetently, it is diminished. (Xenophon, 2013: 3.15)

If we abstract from classical role models, we can argue that Xenophon highlights here that the business manager cannot maintain the functioning order of the business all by himself.⁵ Because he is focusing on sales, for instance, he needs first of all to cooperate and partner up with other managers who manage expenses. The maintenance of the functioning order of a profitable business requires a team of managers that “mutually service” (Xenophon, 2013: 7.19) each other and form a partnership, balancing income and expenses, external and internal affairs, etc. As it is clear that for Xenophon, the wife contributes equally to the success of the business, we can abandon his literal connection of males as manager of the external affairs and females as managers of the internal affairs (Xenophon, 2013: 7.20–7.26) and highlight the functional difference between ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 Setting the Scene: Opening Up the Self-evident Concept of Management
• 2 Management as Participation, Responsive Action, and Constitution of Meaning
• 3 Management as Politico-economic Governance
• 4 Management as Non-reductive Stakeholder Engagement
• 5 Management as Epistemic Insufficient Entrepreneurship
• 6 Managing for the Common Good: Towards an Integrated Principle of Business Ethics
• 7 Conclusion
• References
• Index