The Body of Knowledge in Management Education

it mean? Is it of any use? Is it worth the money which people pay to acquire it? These, and many other related questions that I have asked myself, address the central epistemological issue upon which my integrity as an educator turns. It has troubled me much at times. Though I would not wish to argue that the transmission of substantive information lies at the core of the educational process for managers, nevertheless there is an accumulation of literature over the years, and especially during the past century, which amounts to something like a ’body of knowledge’ to do with organisations and their managing. So, having examined quite a lot of it, I ask myself again: What is the status of this knowledge? In what sense is it ’true’? Can it be taught prescriptively, with a view to reliability in application? Or should it only be imparted retrospectively, for the purpose of illuminating and interpreting managerial experience? I have come to no final conclusions in seeking answers to these questions, other than the certainty that the ’truth’ of this body of knowledge lies as much in its social construction as in its