Shopping for science

The best writing about management has tended to fall into two categories. Both encompass activities in which the most creative and influential scientists excel.

One is, of course, standard science in fields whose secrets are, to one degree or another, accessible by its traditional methods. For managers, such fields of interest are not the quasi-scientific field of management itself, but others that shed light on the practice of management. These include various sub-fields of psychology, ranging from group dynamics to some of the evidence-based models of human behavior, such as Cognitive Therapy. Many important figures in the development of management, such as Kurt Lewin, the originator of force field theory as it operates in organizations, are from fields such as these. Others are mathematics (game theory), network theory (read the original work in this field first, and only later, if you must, the derivative stuff written under the rubric of management science), biology, anthropology, animal behavior, and the science of synchrony.

The other is the category of integrative and speculative thinkers. The two greatest writers in this category are Mary Parker Follett and Peter Drucker. People such as these are known for careful observations of people and organizations, a wide-ranging curiosity about all aspects of the human condition and human activities combined with an eclectic approach to understanding these, and a creative ability to synthesize insights from various approaches that strengthens and validates all of them.

When you are ready to pick up your next management book, don’t look in the management section at all. Peruse the social sciences, psychology, or even the hard sciences such as physics. Scan these sections in your favorite online bookstore. You will be surprised at what you find that may turn out to be of inestimable value in your development as a manager.

For the most part, efforts to characterize management as a self-contained science are doomed to failure. It is a complex skill which exploits - rather than merely expresses - other sciences, and that, even more importantly, generates and deploys critical thinking skills and, really, plain common sense. Unfortunately, it is often our failures in that latter area that make the others so difficult for us to attain. We’ll look at this area, next.