Abstract

GOLDMAN, GA  and  VAN DER LINDE, TN. The protestant ethic and its' effect on the study of management. JCMAN [online]. 2008, vol.5, n.1, pp.238-247. ISSN 1815-7440.

This speculative, self reflective paper looks at the inculcation of the protestant ethic through western civilisation and how it has become part of the moral fibre of capitalism and "doing business". But this inculcation is not without its pitfalls. It has also caused us, as academics, to become lost in the malaise of mundane research efforts. We try to show that we are caught up in the shadows on Plato's "wall of the cave" as far as the study of management is concerned; that the very capitalist (and accompanying protestant) tradition that our western economic society is based on is hampering our perceptions of what constitutes reality

Keywords : Reformation of the Church; capitalist spirit; protestant ethic; Plato's Cave; management research.

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