A book that I find useful is Wren's Evolution of Management Thought. I find that it helps to know where theories came from before going further.
Publisher: Wiley; 6 edition (December 22, 2008) Language: English ISBN-10: 0470128976 ISBN-13: 978-0470128978
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Karen Moustafa Leonard, Ph.D.
Professor and Chair, Department of Management
College of Business
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Accredited by AACSB International, the College of Business serves as a catalyst to advance education and economic development in the State of Arkansas
On Mon, Feb 4, 2013 at 6:42 AM, Vishwanath Baba
<baba@mcmaster.ca> wrote:
Usman,
I teach something similar, deceptively titled management theory. This is the only compulsory course that all DeGroote PhD students, regardless of their functional specialization (Marketing, HR, Finance, MIS, POM etc) take. It has three components: The first introduces them to the vocabulary of science and the meanings of things like models, theories, paradigms, as well as central debates in the field. The second probes the meaning of MANAGEMENT in financial management, human resources management, marketing management, production management etc and pulls out the unique as well as common factors that inform these fields of management. This is done through investigating the various functional schools of management through selected readings. As you can see the currency of the readings is not at all important. (they get it in the field seminars). What I do here is to focus on the representativeness of the ideas in the readings for the particular School of thought and their contribution to management thought. The third component trains them to pull out the significant common strands of management across the schools and enrich them with some of the unique contributions to the notion of management from the different schools of thought. I ask them each to write a theory of management with analysis and synthesis. We discuss it in class and explore implications to the ontology, epistemology and methodology of management. Then I offer a thought of my own in the last class, basically giving them an example of how one does it, and using it primarily to train them to critique. I have enclosed my course outline. As you can see I have already started making some changes for the next year!
Some years ago, I was chatting with Bob Duncan who was also teaching something similar. I thought it was pretty impressive what he was doing in the class room. You may want to explore that as well. Best.
Baba
From: Organizational Behavior Division Listserv [mailto:OB@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU] On Behalf Of Usman Raja
Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2013 11:12 AM
To: OB@AOMLISTS.PACE.EDU
Subject: [OB-LIST] Outline suggestion
I have to teach a PhD seminar entitled "Philosophy and Thoughts in Management." I would much appreciate if you could share your outline, suggested readings etc for same or similar course.