Undermining Efficiency: A Conceptual History of How Management’s ‘Axiom Number One’ Limits Innovation

Stephen Cummings, Christina Lubinski

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Abstract

Management studies inertia and lack of substantive innovation is claimed to stem from a combination of individual decisions and institutional pressures. Yet the role of the field's foundational concepts in explaining its stagnation has yet to be explored. This paper engages in a "conceptual history" of the concept of efficiency, from its pre-modern form to its transformation and adoption as management studies' foundational and fundamental good. This history enables us to see how efficiency's transformation from a particular political device to an unquestionable fundamental axiom has obscured alternative paths of development, and exacerbated the stagnation currently observed within the field at a time of existential crises
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationProceedings of the Eighty-fourth Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management
EditorsSonia Taneja
Number of pages1
Place of PublicationValhalla, NY
PublisherAcademy of Management
Publication date2024
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2024
EventThe Academy of Management Annual Meeting 2024: Innovating for the Future: Policy, Purpose, and Organizations - Chicago, United States
Duration: 9 Aug 202413 Aug 2024
Conference number: 84
https://aom2024.eventscribe.net/

Conference

ConferenceThe Academy of Management Annual Meeting 2024
Number84
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityChicago
Period09/08/202413/08/2024
Internet address
SeriesAcademy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings
ISSN0065-0668

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