The Quest for Professionalism: The Case of Management and Entrepreneurship - Tapa dura

In this insightful book, Georges Romme rekindles the fundamental question, Do we want management to be(come) a profession, and if so, how? What are the roles of management scholarship and practice in guiding this profession? The Quest for Professionalism is well written, and Romme's perspectives on pragmatism, professionalism, and knowledge trading zones are insightful. His model of discovery and validation is key to the pursuit of higher levels of professionalism in management practice, with management scholarship as the driving force. (Professor Andrew H. Van de Ven, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota)

Acknowledging both history and future possibilities, Georges Romme maps out what it takes for management to emerge as a professionshared purpose, appreciative pluralism, cumulative knowledge and effective capacity to learn by doing. The Quest for Professionalism challenges management scholars and educators, business school administrators and regulators, executives, managers and governing boards to pursue the good, not the venal. And it provides a guide to all in how to do so. (Denise M. Rousseau, H.J.Heinz II University Professor of Organizational Behavior and Public Policy, Heinz College and Tepper School of Business, Carnegie Mellon University)

What's happening in our corporate boardrooms? We talk about accountability and transparency to our shareholders and other stakeholders, but often fail to walk our talk. The Quest for Professionalism explores how we can develop management as a system for distributing leadership, control and accountability throughout the organization. The Quest thus invites us to fundamentally rethink and redesign the management discipline. (Baptiest Coopmans, CEO of Ziggo)

The need for professionalism has never been greater. The grand challenge of the 21st century is the quest for professionalism to address not only economic and political challenges but also humanity. Management is about humanity and entrepreneurship is about circularity and connectivity between humans pursuing the common good. This book lays fresh foundations for both management and entrepreneurship and The Quest for Professionalism that Romme propels is a journey with a clearer purpose, replenished knowledge, pragmatic behaviors and realistic expectations. May this quest, like Ulysses' journey, be a long and rewarding one. (Elena Antonacopoulou, Professor of Organizational Behavior, University of Liverpool Management School)

Early pioneers in management thinking, such as Henri Fayol and Peter Drucker, conceived of management as a science-based professional activity that serves the greater good. Today, however, many organizations are managed by people demonstrating anything but professionalism, resulting in mismanagement of risks as well as a one-dimensional focus on short-term results.

The key thesis in this book is that The Quest for Professionalism must be revitalized, because the societal costs and damage caused by managerial amateurism are huge. The book is about how to address this grand challenge, for example by exploring whether and how a shared professional purpose, and a professional body of knowledge, can be developed. While most work in this area has previously focused on management education, The Quest for Professionalism adopts an inside-out approach, implying management scholarship is the driving force behind any intrinsic transformation of the profession at large. Without management scholars playing an active role in advancing 'science-based professionalism,' in the mould of engineering and medicine, any attempt to professionalize management practice is doomed to fail. Moreover, Georges Romme demonstrates the professionalization quest has to move away from the idea of management being confined to a few people at the top, toward management as a technology for distributing power and leadership throughout the organization.