Management: a profession in theory

Purpose – Seeks to explore the responsibilities of the major players in the market‐driven, globally orientated, capitalist system. Should managers and management educators be concerned with the way the system works? If the great guru of management thinking, Peter Drucker, raised fundamental questions about equity and management responsibility, then surely they must. This viewpoint challenges managers to think about their role as social trustees for a just society. Design/methodology/approach – The paper explores the author's thinking about the problem Findings – Concludes that managers and management educators should consider their social and cultural role as “citizen professionals”, and the responsibilities that that term implies. Instead of talking vaguely about paradigm shifts, they should rethink the future in the context of the all too evident “discontinuity” (Drucker) and “disruption” (Fukuyama) that characterise capitalism at the beginning of the twenty‐first century, and beware of “epistemopathology” (Thomas) of those times. Practical implications – The paper provides insights into a new conceptual framework for management in these times. Originality/value – Draws radical conclusions about the role of “management” in society.