Motivation: That's Maslow, isn't it?

The method of the ethnographic experiment is explained and applied to the task of developing an understanding of how certain `standard management education content' is made use of by course members and management teachers. The research focuses on students' reactions to their earlier study of motivation theories and on how they react to challenges put to them about their uncritical reception of material they now begin to see as lacking. Course members' own theorizing about their experience of management learning in the business school context is central to the analysis, but broader implications of the research are brought out by the author who suggests that the problems shown to exist may relate to ones of surface and deep learning in higher education more generally. An anthropological explanation of the problem is also offered, this focusing on the symbolic and comforting role of material like Maslow's hierarchy of needs in management teaching and learning. In conclusion, it is argued that to accept such a role for social science thinking is to neglect its potential. Fulfilling that potential is a considerable challenge but a key one for management education.