A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book about Management Theory

Relentlessly probing the field's foundations, the authors fully overturn the conventional wisdom of management. Their gift is a vast space for imagining new futures. For the first time since the field began, limitless possibility is a realistic framework for moving forward.

Todd Bridgman and Stephen Cummings make studying management theory very different to what you might expect. Instead of going through the same tired old clichés, they breathe new life into the subject by taking an excitingly critical approach. What’s more, they write with a light touch that makes reading their book straightforward but at the same time both refreshing and invigorating.

If our goal for students is memorizing indubitable facts and seeing the world from a managerialist perspective, then any of the existing long, boring, and expensive texts on management will do just fine. But if educating our students about management involves critical thinking, questioning basic assumptions, and looking at things from different perspectives, then Bridgman and Cummings’ “short, interesting, and cheap” book is mandatory reading.

Bridgman and Cummings do it again – produce a user-friendly, entertaining and profoundly informative book on management. The book is tailor-made for faculty and students alike who want to understand the relationship between historical context, management theory and the application of management practice. Yet, do we need “another book on management?” Yes, if it informs through critique of standard works on management and yes if its written by Todd Bridgman and Steve Cummings.

I recommend this textbook for teachers and students alike and will be using it as an aid to learning to thinking differently on my own module. I was engaged by the authors’ conversational style and stimulated to reflect on my assumptions, which is the hallmark of critical reflection. This small book is replete with an unusually large number of incisive and important ideas, which is a testament to authors’ knowledge, identity work and sociological imagination.