Management Fads

Management Fads

A fad is a fashion, a craze, a temporary cultural hype in society. Management fads or management fashions are those “management concepts that relatively speedily gain large shares in the public management discourse” (Jung & Kieser, 2012, p. 329). Thus, fashionable management concepts constitute a sub-set of the total supply of management concepts as not all management concepts succeed in becoming popular (Braam, Heusinkveld, Benders & Aubel, 2002, p. 4). In some cases, there is never a wave of interest, and the new concepts instead die off shortly after their introduction (Benders, van den Berg & van Bijsterveld, 1998). (3)

Fads Life Cycle

Researchers found that management fads are preceded by periods of dormancy followed by bell shaped life cycle.

Ettorre, B proposed a similar life cycle based on a bell-shaped curve that included five stages in the life cycle of a management fad:

The discovery stage, the fad is just beginning to come to the public's attention. Very early articles are appearing in the literature.

The wild-acceptance stage, the fad becomes very popular.

Digestion stage, critics begin to suggest that the fad is not the cure it might once have seemed to be.

Disappointment stage, there is more widespread recognition that problems exist with the fad.

Enthusiasm Stage, only the devoted supporters remain loyal to the fad.

During disappointment stage, the next fad has already begun to capture the attention of the organization, speeding up the decline of the current fad. However. This does not mean that the fad always fades away completely, the fad may serve as a catalyst or predecessor to some new managerial fad or practice, or it may