Abstract
In 1941 Burnham published his book The Managerial Revolution—which is not only the first, but also one of the best critical analyses of the new power elite of managers and the ideological and institutional frameworks that managers have implemented in order to cement their power and privileged position (Burnham, 1941; Mills, 1956). Burnham (1941) documents how managerial power is enabled and protected by ideology and rhetoric, concepts and performance measurement systems, and also practical incentives and punishment tools.
Since the early 1990s this organizational and societal phenomenon has been coined ‘managerialism’. Quite a few books and many articles have been published on managerialism in general as well as its role in private organizations, public services—‘new public management’ (NPM)—higher education institutions, health services, and most recently, the creative industries.
Klikauer’s book Managerialism: A Critique of an Ideology is the first that analyses not only the organizational (ir)rationalities of managerialism (he uses the term with a capital ‘M’), but also the various (troublesome) implications of managerialism at societal, and even at global level. The author does so in the tradition of critical theory, tapping into intellectual frameworks and concepts provided by Marxist philosophers, critical theorists, and existentialists.
The book comprises 14 chapters that analyse the ideology of managerialism and its progress: how it entered and conquered society, culture, organizations, universities, and even our daily lives. It starts with an Introduction that provides a very informative account of the term of managerialism and its meanings, its ideological origins and societal implications. Chapter 2 reveals the full scope and nature of managerialism as an ideology. Here, Klikauer shows how managerial ideology not only distorts thinking and social reality—at the workplace, in society, in academia—but also generates repression, and even totalitarian thinking. Chapters 3 and 4 describe the process of managerialization (‘the process of turning previous non-managerial institutions into managerial institutions’, p. 19) compendiously; one finds out here how managerialism established its own regimes within organizations and how it affects society. The author shows in a wealth of detail how managerialism changed the role of labour under management, how social life and leisure time were transformed and how society and the environment came under the wheels of managerialist techniques. Just how managerialism has shaped corporate and societal culture is analysed in Chapter 5. In particular, Klikauer shows the ‘rationality of irrationality’ and how seemingly logical methods produce schizophrenic realities. This theme is continued in Chapter 6. Here the author demonstrates very convincingly that managerialism actually is a totalitarian ideology that relies on, and produces, strong authoritarianism. Referring to Milgram’s famous experiments, Klikauer argues that managerialism can produce totalitarian regimes anywhere and anytime in the world—and provides many examples to provide his point. In Chapters 7 and 8 the focus shifts to a more linguistic analysis. Showing how managerialism shapes and reshapes our image of history, how philosophical concepts turned into managerial concepts and how this ideology is validated through science—and even through democracy. In Chapter 9 the author analyses how managerialism shapes management studies, and is assisted and strengthened by an endless cohort of management concepts, produced and fine-tuned by management scholars. The chapter also criticizes management studies for its one-dimensional and limited approaches towards organizational and societal realities. This theme is continued in Chapter 10, which covers more comprehensively the age of managerialism. Here, Klikauer shows how ‘managerial domination with corporate policies, rules, markets, and corporations all glued together by the ideology of Managerialism’ (p. 178) provides a certain type of rationality (and legitimation) for our societies.
In Chapters 11–13—the last three chapters before Conclusions—the author challenges the foundations of managerialism and tries to look beyond it. Klikauer regards critical management studies (CMS) as too limited for this task and appeals to the broader philosophical foundations provided by critical theory. He tries to outline the conditions for a more humane existence for people and the kinds of alternatives that society could—or even should—provide.
In my view, the book could have been structured more stringently. A few chapters (e.g Chapters 2 and 7, or Chapters 3, 4 and 10) deal more or less with the same issue and could have been consolidated. On a few occasions the same issue is addressed in several chapters, and there is some repetition of the references designed to support or explain certain arguments (e.g references to Orwell’s dystopia, claims about the similarities between Taylor’s scientific management and Nazi management concepts, critical comments on media celebrities or references to Habermas’ colonization of the lifeworld). However, this could be interpreted as a minor negative by-product of the author’s broad philosophical background and critical approach, where not everything fits neatly into clearly identified boxes but is seen in more holistic and dialectical ways.
In contrast to the repetition, there are a few things missing from the book. Although Klikauer’s analysis of managerialism is extremely comprehensive, multi-faceted and elaborated, at the same time the author says (almost) nothing about those who actually maintain managerialism: the managers. There is also very little in his book about others who experience managerialism on a daily basis, for example employees, consumers or other stakeholders. This criticism may not be entirely fair, because Klikauer makes it very clear that his book is about managerialism as an ideology—and one could argue that an ideology is an abstract belief system or set of values and mechanisms. Nonetheless, if belief systems are analysed and criticized (and rightly so), I believe that one should also hear about the perpetrators and victims of a particular ideology—especially when much of the analysis is about how this ideology works or doesn’t work, what impact it has on people’s lives, and what consequences it produces (again, for whom?).
Klikauer’s main aim was to investigate managerialism as a philosophical concept, critically and comprehensively. Although he was largely successful in this respect, in my view he defined managerialism perhaps too broadly. In his use, the term covers everything that is wrong in current organizational, socio-economic, cultural or societal systems, for example authoritarianism, the surveillance state, commercialization, consumerism, capitalism, neoliberalism, globalization or damages to the natural environment. In contrast, I would argue that not all of this belongs to, or was brought about by, managerialism. I suggest that many of these worrying phenomena—which Klikauer rightly criticizes—would also exist without managerialism. For example, the problems of oppressive and controlling states or work regimes, exploitation, authoritarian personalities or exhaustion of natural resources have been around long before management concepts, managerial structures or managers as a profession have emerged. Managerialism might increase these problems but it would go too far to imply that all these problems are just a part, or direct outcome of managerialism.
Be that as it may, I wholeheartedly agree with the author in his fundamental criticism of managerialism and related phenomena, and I applaud his attempt. Klikauer demonstrates comprehensive and reflective reasoning by tearing apart the abnormal normality of managerial ideology, within organizations as well as at societal level. He uses very powerful language and is refreshingly straight about it—he does not shy away from calling a spade a spade. In this respect too, the book provides a truly critical and thought-provoking alternative to the endless line of dull management-speak books on business and management issues. Moreover, it reminds one how accustomed we became to all the rhetoric about management and ‘the economy’ and how important it is to keep—or regain—a critical distance to such ideologies.
Towards the end of the book, on the basis of a comprehensive analysis of the downsides of managerialism, Klikauer asks what is probably the crucial question: ‘How can managerially indoctrinated individuals, who have been exposed to Managerialism’s psychological–ideological mutilations and forced to reproduce managerial domination, emancipate themselves from themselves and from Managerialism? How can Managerialism’s vicious circle be broken?’ (p. 270). A thorough critique of this ideology, like the one provided by Klikauer, is a first and necessary step in providing answers to these questions. On top of this, we need to (continue to) search for alternatives that might provide better conditions for human existence, to formulate them, and, finally, to attempt to realize and practice them. But this is still to come—and Klikauer will hopefully contribute also to this part. I recommend his latest book to everyone who wants to understand management especially as a societal (not organizational) phenomenon and who wants to see it from a well-founded critical perspective.