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Editorial

Editorial JMH 23,2 This edition has five articles that are mainly conceptual in nature. The first, entitled “Breaking the Chains of ignorance: manager-philosophers in recent management history”, is by Steven Segal and Kyle Bruce, the latter being a regular contributor to this journal. In essence, Segal and Bruce take up the philosophic ideas of Plato to explore how managerial assumptions shaped the practices of two leading managers – Richard Semler (CEO of the Brazilian company, SEMCO) and Jack Welch (CEO of General Electric). Only by overturning their own assumptions, and those that dominated behaviour within their organisations – the paper argues – was business advance possible. In revisiting Plato’s philosophy, Segal and Bruce instigate a reconsideration of the methodological principles that underpin our research. It would be fair to say that, despite being a seminal figure in Western philosophy, Plato has enjoyed bad press of late. The reason for this stems from Plato’s belief that humans can ascertain generalisable laws that explain social outcomes. In coming to this conclusion, Plato’s starting point is his demonstration that the “real” (or most important world) world is not the world of “common sense” and physical objects, but rather of the intellectual laws and http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Management History Emerald Publishing

Editorial

Bowden, Bradley
Journal of Management History , Volume 23 (2): 4 – Apr 10, 2017
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Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
Copyright © Emerald Group Publishing Limited
ISSN
1751-1348
DOI
10.1108/JMH-03-2017-0008
Publisher site
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Abstract

JMH 23,2 This edition has five articles that are mainly conceptual in nature. The first, entitled “Breaking the Chains of ignorance: manager-philosophers in recent management history”, is by Steven Segal and Kyle Bruce, the latter being a regular contributor to this journal. In essence, Segal and Bruce take up the philosophic ideas of Plato to explore how managerial assumptions shaped the practices of two leading managers – Richard Semler (CEO of the Brazilian company, SEMCO) and Jack Welch (CEO of General Electric). Only by overturning their own assumptions, and those that dominated behaviour within their organisations – the paper argues – was business advance possible. In revisiting Plato’s philosophy, Segal and Bruce instigate a reconsideration of the methodological principles that underpin our research. It would be fair to say that, despite being a seminal figure in Western philosophy, Plato has enjoyed bad press of late. The reason for this stems from Plato’s belief that humans can ascertain generalisable laws that explain social outcomes. In coming to this conclusion, Plato’s starting point is his demonstration that the “real” (or most important world) world is not the world of “common sense” and physical objects, but rather of the intellectual laws and

Journal

Journal of Management History – Emerald Publishing

Published: Apr 10, 2017

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