Management ideas, and their associated applications, have become a prevalent feature of our working lives. While their focus is familiar, such as efficiency, motivation, and improvement, they range from specific notions such as activity-based costing, to broad movements like corporate social responsibility. This Handbook brings together some of the latest research from leading international scholars on how management ideas are produced, promoted, and adapted, and their effects on business and working practices and society at large.

Rather than focusing on specific management ideas, this volume explores their key socio-political contexts and channels of dissemination, and is organized around four core overlapping themes. The first section sets out the research field in general, in terms of both an overall system and of different perspectives and research methods. The second section explores the role of different actors and channels of diffusion, including the consumers and producers of management ideas and "new" media, as well as traditional players in the management ideas field such as consultancies and business schools. The third section focuses on specific features or dynamics of the management ideas system, such as their adoption, evolution, institutionalisation, and resurgence, while in the final section, critical and new perspectives on management ideas are examined, highlighting specific socio-political contexts and the possibility of alternative ideas and forms of critique.

With a broad range of perspectives represented, this Handbook provides a comprehensive, authoritative, and enduring resource for those studying management, innovation, and organizational change, as well as for those working in the management ideas industry.

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David Strang, BA, LLB, LLM, was called to the Bar in 1981 after articling with the union-side firm of Maclean Chercover. He began his career as Ontario coordinator and counsel with the Upholsterers International Union then moved to the Laborers International Union of America Provincial District Council as counsel and assistant manager. In 1989 he joined the Legal Branch of the Ontario Ministry of Labour. In 1993 he transferred to the Labour Practice Group seconded by the Attorney General to provide advice and represent the Crown in its role as employer of the Ontario Public Service. He has regularly represented the Crown in grievance arbitrations and other labour and employment litigation and negotiations, including those leading to AMAPCEO’s original voluntary recognition agreement and OPSEU’s Appendix 18. He frequently advised on labour and employment issues raised by proposed policy initiatives and was seconded to the Ministry of Education to advise on the development and implementation of the School Boards Collective Bargaining Act. Since retirement in 2016, he has engaged in a part-time labour and employment practice representing Crown agencies in the community health sector.

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