Reorienting the Business School agenda: the case for relevance, rigor, and righteousness

Birnik, Andreas and Billsberry, Jon (2008). Reorienting the Business School agenda: the case for relevance, rigor, and righteousness. Journal of Business Ethics, 82(4) pp. 985–999.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-007-9607-x

Abstract

This article contributes to the current debate regarding management education and research. It frames the current business school critique as a paradox regarding the arguments for ‘self-interest’ versus ‘altruism’ as human motives. Based on this, a typology of management with four representative types labeled: unguided, altruistic, egoistic, and righteous is developed. It is proposed that the path to the future of management education and research might be found by relegitimizing the ‘altruistic’ spirit of the classics of the great Axial Age (900-200 BCE) and marrying those ideas with the self-interest ideal of mainstream management theories based on economics. By advocating this, a business school agenda that is simultaneously rigorous, relevant, and righteous is promoted.

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