Foundations of Management Thought

This is a unit in the history of Western ideas and their relevance for management. It traces the evolution of Western thought from major philosophical perspectives, ancient and modern. Various philosophies of management are pursued through an analysis of distinguished thinkers: Homer, Plato, Machiavelli, Descartes, Hume, Marx, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Freud and Sartre. A central theme is that what is important about any explanatory perspective is what it assumes. Since it is assumed that management is essentially a philosophical activity, the unit aims to demonstrate that the field of management, which is of recent origin, necessarily draws on a wide range of ancient wisdom and so introduces students to some of the great thinkers of Western civilization.