Business Bullshit

André Spicer

Sep 2017 · Routledge

About this ebook

Our organizations are flooded with empty talk. We are constantly "going forward" to lands of "deliverables", stopping off on the "journey" to "drill down" into "best practice". Being an expert at using management speak has become more important in corporate life than delivering long lasting results. The upshot is that meaningless corporate jargon is killing our organizations.

In this book, management scholar the author argues we need to call this empty talk what it is: bullshit. The book looks at how organizations have become vast machines for manufacturing, distributing and consuming bullshit. It follows how the meaningless language of management has spread through schools, NGOs, politics and the media.

Business Bullshit shows you how to spot business bullshit, considers why it is so popular, and outlines the impact it has on organizations and the people who work there. It also outlines what we can do to minimise bullshit at work. The author makes a case for why organizations need to avoid empty talk and reconnect with core activities.

About the author

André Spicer is a Professor of Organizational Behaviour at Cass Business School, City University of London. He has spent two decades studying the impact of management speak on organizations and the people who work there. He has advised a wide range of organisations, and frequently appears in the global media to discuss business issues. Professor Spicer has published several books including Contesting the Corporation, Metaphors we Lead by, The Wellness Syndrome and The Stupidity Paradox.