Replies to Commentaries on “Management Textbooks as Propaganda”

Abstract

In commenting on our article, "Management Textbooks as Propaganda," Professors Gilbert and Mir provide stimulating observations regarding the purpose of textbooks, the role of management in the world of organizations, and the fundamental purposes of education. Commentaries are meant to be challenging and dissenting, and these authors play their role admirably. Their perspectives highlight a provocative set of issues with which professors, and especially professors of management education, are likely concerned.The major point we take from the two commentaries is that textbooks play an important, and insufficiently critical, role in the systematic propagation of an ideology with which Professors Gilbert and Mir disagree. In our first article, we attempted to make explicit the ideologies furthered by our textbooks and pointed out that faculty members-as ultimate gatekeepers of the academic management knowledge that students receive-should be aware of 739