Explaining the succession of management fads

A continuing feature of personnel management and human resource management has the constantly changing ideas and approaches, many of which have been labelled ‘management fads’ and ‘flavour-of-the-month’ techniques. While the characteristics of popular applications such as team-building and customer care programmes are well known, little attention has so far been paid to explaining the changing preferences in human resource management ideas. The paper is based on a historical analysis of management ideas (Huczynski, 1993). The author argues that the phenomenon of management fad succession is the result of the conscious and unconscious collusion between managers as consumers of management ideas and consultants as suppliers of such ideas. He concludes that, given the nature of capitalist economies, the process of management fad succession is unlikely to decline and, indeed, may accelerate as companies seek a competitive advantage.