Grandiosity in contemporary management and education

Mats Alvesson, Yiannis Gabriel

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

42 Citations (SciVal)

Abstract

Contemporary practitioner and academic discourses of organizations and management have developed a tendency to discuss everyday organizational phenomena in overblown and remarkable ways. It is now commonplace to view organizations in terms of visions, missions, strategies, charisma, entrepreneurship, best practice and so on. A hyped-up language is becoming endemic to ordinary discussions of ordinary organizations doing ordinary things. This calls for some critical attention. One way of capturing this tendency to hype is through the idea of grandiosity that is taking over the ways mundane organizational phenomena are constructed and debated. In this essay, we argue that grandiosity is the product of the narcissism of our times, reinforced by contemporary consumerism; we suggest that grandiosity not only affects adversely critical reflection of organizations and management, but more importantly that it undermines organizational performance and learning.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)464-473
Number of pages10
JournalManagement Learning
Volume47
Issue number4
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Sept 2016

Keywords

  • Grandiosity
  • management
  • organizations

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • General Decision Sciences
  • Strategy and Management
  • Management of Technology and Innovation

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Grandiosity in contemporary management and education'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this