ABSTRACT
Management fashion is a concept describing swings in popularity of specific management techniques (Abrahamson 1996: 118) and of related management bestsellers, buzzwords, approaches to organizational change, services and other solutions. Every manager is “regularly bombarded with dramatic claims of new knowledge creation not only from academicians, but also from gurus promoting discourse as “unique” and “revolutionary” techniques” (Carson, Lanier 2000: 1143), which due to their short lasting character and superficiality can be interpreted using the metaphor of fashion. The concepts in question gain temporary popularity and are perceived as novel and innovative, promising to improve organizational performance, while later in their diffusion lifecycles, they become widely criticized and abandoned by organizations disappointed with the achieved results.
