The application dilemma – a sceptic's perspective

Management researchers, academics and educators and self proclaimed management gurus have produced an enormous literary output on the topic of management and organisations over the past 100 years or so. There is no dearth of information available to practitioners on almost any topic in this field about which they wish to enquire. The $64 question remains – how much of the information and advice actually gets put into continuing effective use by managers? This paper examines a range of topics and suggests that the answer to the question is “very little”.