Provocation # 150 management schools.
In the spirit of provocations

Perhaps the split off of management schools from economics put the operational stuff away from the guidance of theory, just as the management schools became control centers for profit making and the success of corporations. At the same time economics was kept pure, not sullied by pragmatic concerns. The result is management is not a thoughtful enterprise with real scope and reach but narrowed to the interests, not of society but of corporations. Economics becomes a somewhat grotesque ensemble of formalisms not giving guidance on how to govern the humanity in the context of our given planet.

Accounting also was given a lower place, full of skills but not guided by either theory (economics) or pragmatics of the business schools, but just a narrow set of skills.
I like the idea of bringing them all back together in an effort to manage the future for the broader good. This could mean a serious blending of science and the humanities. The best of the enlightenment.

As a footnote about the placement of disciplines, remember what used to be called “home economics.” Here are the first sentences of the wiki article on “Home economics.”

Home economics, domestic science or home science is a field of study that deals with home and economics. It deals with the relationship between individuals, families, communities, and the environment in which they live.

Not bad. What happened?

Family and consumer science was previously known in the United States as home economics, often abbreviated “home ec” or “HE”. In 1994, various organizations, including the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences, adopted the new term “family and consumer science” to reflect the fact that the field covers aspects outside of home life and wellness. (Also wiki)

The field is also known by other names, including human sciences, home science, and domestic economy. In addition, home economics has a strong historic relationship to the field of human ecology, and since the 1960s a number of university-level home economics programs have been renamed “human ecology” programs, including Cornell University’s program. (More wiki).

Home economics emerged at the turn of the twentieth century as a movement to train women to be more efficient household managers. At the same moment, American families began to consume many more goods and services than they produced. To guide women in this transition, professional home economics had two major goals: to teach women to assume their new roles as modern consumers and to communicate homemakers’ needs to manufacturers and political leaders. The development of the profession progressed from its origins as an educational movement to its identity as a source of consumer expertise in the interwar period to its virtual disappearance by the 1970s.[6] An additional goal of the field was to “rationalize housework”, or lend the social status of a profession to it, based on a theory that housework could be intellectually fulfilling to women engaged in it, along with any emotional or relational benefits. (Wiki)

“Home economics” has for decades been a deeply dismissive name. Peculiar, since that is the meaning of economics in the original Greek as used by Aristotle and others. That dismissiveness gets in the way of looking at economics more holistically, a reorientation of economics away from a stress on narrow flows to a fuller exploration of how to manage the planet.

Imagine politics, economics and history along with management and accounting brought together as the integrative discipline of giving guidance on managing the planet as serious estate management , rather than the narrow discipline of exploiting the planet for the benefit of a few that economics has largely become.

Appreciate responses..