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In recent years, the academic interest in management fads can be illustrated by a growing body of literature from authors such as Abrahamson (1996, 1999) Carson et al (1999, 2000), Spell (1999), Ettorre (1997), Staw and Epstein (2000) and Gibson and Tesone (2001). Nor is this interest limited to academics. Popular press books on the subject include Sixty Trends in Sixty Minutes (2002), Management Fads and Buzzwords: Critical-Practical Perspectives (2000), Facing Up to Management Faddism: A New Look at an Old Force (2001), Managing Quality Fads: How American Business Learned to Play the Quality Game (1999), and the ever popular Dilbert entry, The Dilbert Principle: A Cubicle's Eye View of Bosses, Meetings, Management Fads & Other Workplace Afflictions. (1997).
In fact, it is hard to determine who is more interested in fads, the academics who write about them, the consultants who sell them, or the managers who use them. It is not even clear where fads originate. Does practice lead theory as some would suggest, or do academics and consultants originate the new management fads and urge them upon managers hoping to come up with a breakthrough in organizational productivity and effectiveness? In any event, managers are a willing group, always looking for something new and innovative. Abrahamson (1996) argues that norms of managerial rationality and progress dictate the enthusiasm with which management greets any new fad. Managerial rationality refers to society's expectations that managers will use the most efficient techniques, and managerial progress refers to society's expectations that managers will consistently seek and use "new and improved management techniques." (256)
Together, norms of managerial rationality and progress create the need for a flow of management techniques that organizational stakeholders believe are rational, at the forefront of management progress, and that managers can adopt in order to appear in conformity with these norms. (Abrahamson, 1996, 256)
But what constitutes a fad? The authors defined fads in a previous article as "widely accepted, innovative interventions into the organization's practices designed to improve some aspect of performance. Fads evolve into new management practices or are abandoned as failures." (Gibson and Tesone, 2001, 122) Say Miller and Hartwick (2002),
Though the term "fad" may seem dismissive, it's not. Fads like TQM can profoundly change companies, for better or...