...to academics. Popular press books on the subject include Sixty Trends in Sixty Minutes (2002), Management Fads and Buzzwords: Critical-Practical Perspectives (2000), Facing Up to Management Faddism: A New Look at an Old Force (2001), Managing Quality Fads: How American Business Learned to Play the Quality Game (1999), and the ever popular Dilbert entry, The Dilbert Principle: A Cubicle's Eye View of Bosses, Meetings, Management Fads & Other Workplace Afflictions. (1997).

In fact, it is hard to determine who is more interested in fads, the academics who write about them, the consultants who sell them, or the managers who use them. It is not even clear where fads originate. Does practice lead theory as some would suggest, or do academics and consultants originate the new management fads and urge them upon managers hoping to come up with a breakthrough in organizational productivity and effectiveness? In any event, managers are a willing group, always looking for something new and innovative. Abrahamson (1996) argues that norms of managerial rationality and progress dictate the enthusiasm with which management greets any new fad. Managerial rationality refers to society's expectations that managers will use the most efficient techniques, and managerial progress refers to society's expectations that managers will consistently seek and use "new and improved management techniques." (256)

Together, norms of managerial rationality and progress create the need for a flow of management techniques that organizational stakeholders believe are rational, at the forefront of management progress, and that managers can adopt in order to appear in conformity with these norms. (Abrahamson, 1996, 256)

But what constitutes a fad? The authors defined fads in a previous article as "widely accepted, innovative interventions into the organization's practices designed to improve some aspect of performance. Fads evolve into new management practices or are abandoned as failures." (Gibson and Tesone, 2001, 122) Say Miller and Hartwick (2002),

Though the term "fad" may seem dismissive, it's not. Fads like TQM can profoundly change companies, for better or for worse. And they can introduce useful ideas that companies incorporate into practice, even as the fad itself fades from the scene. But fads often fail to deliver on their promises, a factor that contributes to their short life cycles and rapid decline. (26)

This article introduces five management fads that were very popular in the second half of the 1900s, including: management by objectives (MBO), sensitivity training, quality circles, total quality management (TQM) and self-managed teams. The authors report findings from 178 respondents who were asked if they were familiar with these fads and considered them useful today. These results are one measure of the lasting significance of fads. Are they here yesterday but gone today? Before presenting the fads and the survey results, it may be useful to consider the common characteristics of management fads.

Common Characteristics of Management Fads

While individual fads vary considerably both in their approach and target (e.g., quality circles target quality improvement and team-building targets interpersonal relationships), ultimately all fads strive to improve organizational effectiveness. Several life-cycle theories have been postulated. The best known may be the one by Ettorre, who sees management fads going through five stages: discovery, wild acceptance, digestion, disillusionment, and hard core. (1997) Ettorre's model looks like a bell shaped curve with...

NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.



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