There was a time when transaction cost economics, contingency theory, information theory were popular theories in management and business research. Nowadays, these theories seem to be regarded as old fashioned and a thing of the past. What are the reason in your expert opinion?
I completely disagree with claims that transaction cost economics is less popular as a theory and less relevant today.
The rise of the sharing economy is predicated on transaction costs; as is the talk of the frictionless economy and or low-friction markets.
In fact it may be the opposite, that the theory and its insights are so powerful and central to any research on the Internet economy, that scholars citing it may feel the need to throw in something else that has not been as researched and practiced as transaction costs. Likewise for information theory; not just because I am on the faculty of the 'original information school' any claim that the information sciences and applications of information theory are less significant today just looks frankly rather silly. There's this data network called the Internet and these mobile devices....which follow Clauide Shannon 101 principles still today. Now to claim a significant new breakthrough in information theory...well yeah that is hard; as it should be.
As to which particular theories are most popular among faculty of business schools, that is of course a different question. And definitely leadership theory and studies is on the rise, no question.
Yes dear Mohamed. The use of certain theories in management and business research is in decline. There are many reasons for this declination. The emergence of new theories would let the need for old ones less.
Anyhow, let us talk, for an example, on Leadership theories, Transformational leadership has been discussed and researched too much in the last two decades.
“Later, researcher Bernard M. Bass expanded upon Burns' original ideas to develop what is today referred to as Bass’ Transformational Leadership Theory. According to Bass, transformational leadership can be defined based on the impact that it has on followers. Transformational leaders, Bass suggested, garner trust, respect, and admiration from their followers”.
For more information about leadership, look at the following link:
http://psychology.about.com/od/leadership/a/transformational.htm
Innovation in the educational field is so fast. I have seen article Reinventing Management, that argues that the past knowledge and theories are less useful in today's world of innovation of information technology.
It always happens in social sciences and management that more convincing theories emerge due to changing context. For example, as dear Mahfuz also mentions, these days transformational leadership theory is the most popular; and it is linked with the rise of people-centricity in the post-globalization world.
I completely disagree with claims that transaction cost economics is less popular as a theory and less relevant today.
The rise of the sharing economy is predicated on transaction costs; as is the talk of the frictionless economy and or low-friction markets.
In fact it may be the opposite, that the theory and its insights are so powerful and central to any research on the Internet economy, that scholars citing it may feel the need to throw in something else that has not been as researched and practiced as transaction costs. Likewise for information theory; not just because I am on the faculty of the 'original information school' any claim that the information sciences and applications of information theory are less significant today just looks frankly rather silly. There's this data network called the Internet and these mobile devices....which follow Clauide Shannon 101 principles still today. Now to claim a significant new breakthrough in information theory...well yeah that is hard; as it should be.
As to which particular theories are most popular among faculty of business schools, that is of course a different question. And definitely leadership theory and studies is on the rise, no question.
Dear All,
I do not regard TCE or CT as old fashioned or outdated, we simply build upon this and while doing so, we refer to other, newer advances in theory. TCE is economic theory, so its grounds, assumptions and methods is different from what is done in business and management. The latter is more applicable and - I would say... flexible, when it goes about the way it is developed.
Anyway, TCE and CT is still alive and well, and - in my opinion - it will survive long - as they are simply well grounded theories
Human resource management is a multidisciplinary drawing theories from various fields such as management, psychology, sociology and economics, aimed at developing people and associated with planning, recruitment, selection, orientation, training, appraisal motivation and remuneration.
Maslows models is referred in
There are many theories in Management, which are applied and sustained over ages. One such is the Maslow’s hierarchy of need theory. Since 1943 this is most commonly sought and referred in Management applications.
@Lee McKnight, Thank you for your kind reply.
Published research shows such decline in business and management research. This does not mean that the use of such theories is in decline in other research domains.
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I suspect that the science of management is particularly subject to fads and fashions. Greater rewards probably go to advisors who have something new to offer rather than to those who offer orthodox advice that has a strong conceptual basis and has been subject to extensive empirical testing.
Intervention of Technology has also affected dealing with the human aspect of
knowledge management, two primary variables come into play: (1) intelligence and (2) learning. There are different types of intelligence that work on different forms of knowledge. Three levels of human intelligence, mainly products, operations, and content, were identified (Guilford, 1963); products included units, classes, and systems; operations or processes included cognition, memory, divergent thinking, convergent thinking, and evaluation; content entailed figural, symbolic, semantic, and behavioral.
http://www.ijikm.org/Volume6/IJIKMv6p035-072Saade472.pdf
Dear Beata,
I totally concur with what you say and reiterate that I did mention these theories with respect to their use in management and business research, but not in economics.
Dear Bemerikhi,
I understand innovation and reformulation of theories in the backdrop of strategies. New theories such as adoptive theories, theory of constrainst, I-Triz are taking place offs shots new theories. Emerging theory of consciousness, and theory of utopian empire may lead. At the same time to explain the theories you mentioned are becoming outdated due to sciento-managerial invention in organisation where cost are reducing in for tangibility and intangibilities are determining the managerial phenomena. This is really an interesting questions need deep undertsanding through and appropriate analysis.
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