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Philosophy for Managers and Philosophy of Managers: Turf, Reputation, Coalition

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Abstract

This article distinguishes between philosophy for managers and philosophy of managers. Philosophy for managers is prescriptive advice concerning the content of wisdom in practical judgment and action. Managers in action rely on a self-constructed operational code – a concept borrowed here from earlier literature – that unavoidably emphasizes turf, reputation, and coalition in career advancement. The organization is a political arena for decisions, resources, and career opportunities. While elements of operational philosophy are addressed in formal management education, treatment is haphazard and fragmented in a way that leaves managers to develop a personal operational philosophy. How managers address these elements depends on whether they are idealists, realists, or social darwinists in personal philosophy. The author develops these three options as illustrative categories of operational codes for managers.

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Notes

  1. There was a formal discussion of philosophy of life: William James, The Will to Believe, and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy (New York: Longmans, Green, 1897); Josiah Royce, William James and Other Essays on the Philosophy of Life (New York: Macmillan, 1911).

  2. Nor does the term mean the philosophy for managing the firm laid down by the CEO: this philosophy is a strategic framework within which managers operate. An example is the Marriott Management Philosophy: http://www.marriott.com/Multimedia/PDF/Marriott_Management_Philosophy.pdf

  3. Barnard (1938) provided an effort at a theory of the executive (see Mahoney 2002). Barnard’s body of work includes a lecture on business ethics (Barnard 1958).

  4. The term was used by William B. Wolf and Haruki Iino: W. B. Wolf and H. Iino (eds.), Philosophy for Managers: Selected Papers of Chester I. Barnard (Tokyo, Japan: Bunshindo Publishing Co., Ltd., 1986), and not listed in Library of Congress online catalog but available in OCLC World Catalog. http://www.amazon.com/PHILOSOPHY-FOR-MANAGERS-Selected-CHESTER/dp/4830932481-see W. B. Wolf, 1996, “Reflections on the History of Management Thought,” Journal of Management History, 2(2): 4–10.

  5. The material in the next three paragraphs is reworked from a forthcoming encyclopedia entry by the author.

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  1. Jesse H. Jones Graduate School of Business, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA

    Duane Windsor

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Windsor, D. Philosophy for Managers and Philosophy of Managers: Turf, Reputation, Coalition. Philosophy of Management 14, 17–28 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40926-015-0004-8

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