Realizing a Regenerative Future by Revisiting Our Roots: A Dialectical Model of Management for the Circular Economy

Abstract The circular economy (CE) is often treated as a technological or system‐design challenge. We argue that it is also a managerial transition that remains under‐theorized. Rather than assuming that CE requires wholly new managerial frameworks, we revisit Fayol's functions of planning, organizing, leading and controlling as enduring managerial ideals and examine how they are reworked under CE conditions. Using a problematization‐based, abductive approach, we develop a dialectic‐performative model showing how contradictions generated by causal ambiguity, systemic interdependence, stakeholder plurality and distributed authority reshape managerial work in practice. From this process, we theorize four performative practices: strategy, through which planning becomes adaptive yet directional; structure, through which organizing becomes ecosystem coordination; stewardship, through which leading becomes the alignment of plural stakeholder commitments; and synergy, through which controlling becomes relational accountability across dispersed actors. The paper contributes a processual theoretical account of how enduring managerial ideals evolve through practice in circular settings. In doing so, it shows how management can make a distinctive contribution to CE transition alongside technological and systemic change.