Martin Parker: Against Management - Book Review

Organization Studies, June, 2003 by Deborah Blackman

2002, Cambridge: Polity Press. 256 pages [pounds sterling]50, ISBN 0745629253 (hbk); [pounds sterling]14.99, ISBN 0745629261 (pbk)

There has been a growing debate in the last few years regarding how well management is both understood and applied within industry and academia, reflecting concerns as to why it is not providing individuals and businesses with ideal solutions. Indications of these discussions can be found in the growth of disciplines such as critical management studies and in the resurgence of interest in philosophy and its application to managerial thought. There is also, however, a growing question as to whether the reason why management is not sufficiently understood to be truly effective is because it is not the right strategy in itself. It is into this arena, challenging many of the currently accepted thoughts on management, that Martin Parker unashamedly places this book. The underpinning argument running through the book is that management and organization have become almost synonymous: to be organized is to have an effective managerialist perspective that enables processes and structures to be implemented. Thus, if al ternative ways of organizing are to be achieved, management must be challenged and its acceptance as the best way of coordinating businesses reconsidered.

Initially Martin Parker states that he wishes to persuade us 'that almost all... senses of management are both limiting and dangerous, and that managerialism is ultimately a form of thought and activity which is being used to justify considerable cruelty and inequality' (p. 9), and that, as a result of the book, he wishes the reader to challenge the acceptance of management as a saviour and to consider the possibility of management as a problem. His objective is to collect diverse texts together which will illustrate that there is no one best way to organize the world and, thus, he proposes the book as 'one element in a battle of ideas for this particular epoch which attempts to open up the possibility of alternative, non-managerial, conceptions of organizing' (p. 12). These are no small objectives and whether Martin Parker achieves them will be discussed here.

The book has four main thrusts. First, the concept of what management actually has come to mean is explored and three general assumptions are outlined, in order to identify that his target is managerialism, the generalized ideology of management. This target is chosen because he wishes to debate the increasingly accepted use of business school style management to organize and control everything, in order to propose alternative, nonmanagerial forms of organizing. Proposals are made concerning options such as democracy, community, participation, citizenship and cooperation.

After discussing the background of the book and the reasons for engaging in a consideration of management, the second section of the book addresses instances where classic formulations of management and its purpose have been 'opposed and reformulated, though often in ways that relegitimize a market based managerialism' (p. 12) and looks for ways whereby some alternatives to the managerial perspective may emerge. The three examples used are the notion of bureaucracy, with particular focus upon George Ritzer's discussions of McDonaldization; contemplation of notions of citizenship; and the idea of how communities might change the notion of organizing. Each chapter is seeking to identify why the current paradigms are too delimiting and to propose some alternative trains of thought. This is not entirely achieved; although (particularly in the chapters about citizenship and community) many of the understandably complex arguments seem to lead to a clear conclusion that there is a need to rethink, there are few rea l alternative ideas being proffered. It could be argued that this is not the purpose of the book, and that these ideas are due to come later, but for readers to continue to delve into the book there need to be a few more promises of treats in store. The greatest feeling of a real option is in the discussion about an 'orgunity' (p. 81). This is a 'thought experiment' of an organization that is an ideal-type community, and leads into a very interesting discussion as to what would be needed and why. However, this section ends with a statement that the issues will need clarifying, and there is hardly any further mention of the concept or these ideas.

The third section of the book concentrates upon the very real sense of mistrust of management and explores current debates which are attempting to address some of the problems. The areas considered are the idea of business ethics, the academic discipline of critical management studies, the fight against corporations as portrayed in the culture industries (such as film and literature), and the anti-corporate protest embracing organizations such as Earth First!. Various aspects of anti-managerial thought are outlined and their arguments highlighted and explored. This section is very strong and the reader is left with an unambiguous picture of the attempts that have been made to challenge the current order, and of why they have not always worked. The real difficulties of transferring these ideas from the theoretical applications seen in a classroom or a film into the reality of business become very clear. The difficulties of identifying the enemy are outlined: for example, if a corporation is synonymous with it s culture, then changing the culture will challenge the corporation; but if it is not, no alteration will occur. Similarly, it is vital to establish when management and the organization are the same; otherwise, to challenge management will not be to challenge the actual way corporations and businesses are designed.