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

THE DARK SIDE OF MANAGEMENT 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 dis cipline. 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. THE DARK SIDE OF MANAGEMENT A secret history of management knowledge Gerard Hanlon First published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and in the USA and Canada by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2016 Gerard Hanlon The right of Gerard Hanlon to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Hanlon, Gerard. The dark side of management : a secret history of management knowledge / Gerard Hanlon. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Management. 2. Industrial management. I. Title. HD31.2.H36 2015 658--dc23 2015001787 ISBN: 978-1-138-80189-9 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-138-80190-5 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-75458-1 (ebk) Typeset in Bembo by Taylor & Francis Books For Gabriel His cousins Jack and Liam His recently arrived younger brother Dylan And his grandad Bernard CONTENTS Preface ix PART I Introducing the violence of management 1 Introduction: managing the free gifts of the general intellect and the division of labour 3 1 Management’s authoritarian heart 23 PART II The dark nature of management knowledge 53 ‘Class struggle without class?’ Attempting to manufacture incompetence 55 ‘An almost equal division of the work and the responsibility’: driving towards the mass industrial subject 89 2 3 4 ‘Spontaneous cooperation’: excavating the soul 125 PART III Management, neo-liberalism and a history of violence 5 ‘Confiscate the soul’: Taylor, Mayo and the fundamentals of management 159 161 viii Contents 6 Management: the first neo liberal ‘science’ Appendix: management, Durkheim and discipline Bibliography Index 183 203 207 218 PREFACE In 1956