Abstract
Purpose
– Organizational research missed managerial ignorance concealment (MIC) and the low-moral careerism (L-MC) it served, leaving a lacuna in managerial stupidity research: MIC serving L-MC was not used to explain this stupidity. The purpose of this paper is to remedy this lacuna.
Design/methodology/approach
– A semi-native longitudinal multi-site ethnography of automatic processing plants, their parent inter-kibbutz co-operatives (I-KC-Os) and their kibbutz field context enabled a Strathernian ethnography that contextualized the prevalence of MIC and L-MC.
Findings
– I-KC-Os’ oligarchic context encouraged outsider executives’ MIC and L-MC that caused vicious distrust and ignorance cycles, stupidity and failures. A few high-moral knowledgeable mid-managers prevented total failures by vulnerable involvement that created virtuous trust and learning cycles. This, however, furthered dominance by ignorant ineffective L-MC executives and furthered use of MIC.
Practical implications
– As managerial know-how portability is often illusory and causes negative dominance of ignorant outsider executives, new CEO succession norms and new yardsticks for assessing fitness of potential executives are required, proposed in the paper.
Social implications
– Oligarchic contexts encourage MIC and L-MC, hence democratization is called for to counter this negative impact and promote efficiency, effectiveness and innovation.
Originality/value
– Untangling and linking the neglected topics of MIC and L-MC explains, for the first time, the prevalence of these related phenomena and their unethical facets, particularly among outsider executives and managers, emphasizing the need for their phronetic ethnographying to further explain the resulting mismanagement.
Subject
Management Science and Operations Research,General Business, Management and Accounting
Reference149 articles.
1. Ahonen, P.
,
Tienari, J.
,
Merilainen, S.
and
Pullen, A.
(2014), “Hidden contexts and invisible power relations: a Foucauldian reading of diversity research”,
Human Relations
, Vol. 67 No. 3, pp. 263-286.
2. Ailon, G.
(2015), “From superstars to devils: the ethical discourse on managerial figures involved in a corporate scandal”,
Organization
, Vol. 22 No. 1, pp. 78-99.
3. Alvesson, M.
and
Spicer, A.
(2012), “A stupidity-based theory of organizations”,
Journal of Management Studies
, Vol. 49 No. 7, pp. 1194-1220.
4. Antonakis, J.
and
Atwater, L.
(2002), “Leader distance: a review and a proposed theory”,
Leadership Quarterly
, Vol. 13 No. 4, pp. 673-705.
5. Baldoni, J.
(2008), “How to fight managerial incompetence”, Harvard Business Review, April 3, available at: www.hbr.org (accessed January 11, 2013).
Cited by
10 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献