ABSTRACT
Tom Peters was one of the most popular and widely read management gurus of the 1980s and 1990s. A consultant by training rather than an academic, he has drawn on his own business experiences and his understandings of the causes behind business successes and failures to present a compelling picture of American business and management culture; and to argue for revolutionary changes in that culture. He believes that many of the fundamental principles on which American management is based are outmoded, outdated and wrong. In his later works he speaks of the need for ‘liberation’ from the values of the past, especially away from the overly mechanistic approach to management and organisation which developed from scientific management, and a move towards flatter hierarchies, decentralisation, creativity and freedom of action for managers and workers alike.
