The Ethics and Ethical Implications of Management Guru Philosophies and Practices

The purpose of this paper is to explore the place of values and ethics in the development and introduction of management philosophies and gurus to businesses. These philosophies are usually embedded in management education and practice with varying results and have in some cases been referred to and indeed adopted and discarded as fads. This paper aims to critique the values and ethical underpinnings of some influential philosophies proposed by the gurus. Much of the literature covers the effectiveness of the philosophies without an emphasis on the values or ethics guiding them. Oftentimes, gurus categorize success by how positive the bottom line is, regardless of the means, but the repercussions of unethical philosophies and behaviour on organizational performance are evident. There is, therefore, a need to critically evaluate the ethical dimensions of these philosophies to increase the prioritization of ethical considerations in guru teaching, adoption, and practice. The research relies on the use of an integrative literature review lens to synthesize existing knowledge in order to generate new knowledge. There is a need to ensure that the application of guru theory is humanistic and not mechanistic. If management theories from gurus are ethically assessed before adoption and transmission, we are more likely to attain sustainable organizational integrity where person-centred, ethically upright decisions are the norm. This contribution is a theoretical one and further studies can be done to test the questions against management theories as they emerge.