Management Theory: Jungle, Myth, or Hoax? (Willmott 2025) | FT50 UTD24 AMR

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Welcome to “Revise and Resubmit” 🎙️✨

Hey there, thinkers, tinkerers, and theory-wranglers—welcome to the podcast that rewrites what you thought you knew and resubmits it with sharper edges: Revise and Resubmit! 🚀📝

Today, we’re stepping into a world where management theory isn’t just a map or a myth—it might be something trickier, slipperier, and a little more unsettling. 🧭🗺️➡️🎭

Some say mainstream management theory is a jungle—dense, teeming, survival of the fittest. 🌴🐅
Others say it’s a myth—a story told often enough to feel like truth. 📜🔮
But what if the better metaphor is a hoax? 🎩🪄
A clever costume, an exquisite performance, a room nodding along as the emperor strides past—barely dressed in the rhetoric of neutrality. 👑🪞

In this episode, we dive into “Management Theory: Jungle, Myth, or Hoax?” by Hugh Willmott, published OnlineFirst on 7 Aug 2025 in the Academy of Management Review—yes, that Academy of Management Review, a prestigious FT50 and UTD24-listed journal. 🏛️⭐📚

We’ll unpack four features of the “hoax” that Willmott spotlights—

• Mendacity 😶🌫️

• Fantasies of control 🕹️

• Stifling critical reflection 🤐

• Normalized cynicism 😏

And we’ll ask: What does this mean for grand challenges, for reconciling mainstream theory with critical management studies, and for the future of management education itself? 🌍🎓

So lean in, sharpen your skepticism, and bring your best questions. Because today, we’re not just reading the text—we’re reading the tailoring. ✂️🧵

Before we begin—make sure to subscribe to Revise and Resubmit on Spotify, and follow the YouTube channel “Weekend Researcher” for deep dives and discussion. 🎧▶️ And yes, we’re also available on Amazon Prime and Apple Podcast—hit that follow so you never miss a resubmission. 📲🍎🛒

Huge thanks to the author Hugh Willmott and the publisher, the Academy of Management, for this provocative and timely contribution. 🙏🏽📖

Here’s the question we’ll leave hanging like a threaded hem: If the hoax is the metaphor that fits best, who’s crafting the costume—and who dares to say the emperor has no clothes? 👀🧥❓

Reference

Hugh Willmott, (2025): Management Theory: Jungle, Myth, or Hoax?. AMR, In-Press, https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2023.0098

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