1 Paper presented to the Second International Conference of Critical Management Studies, UMIST 11-13 July 2001. Management and Goodness Stream MacIntyre and the amorality of management Ron Beadle, Principal Lecturer in HRM Newcastle Business School University of Northumbria at Newcastle Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8ST Tel: 0044 191 227 3469 Fax: 0044 191 227 3682 E-Mail: ron.beadle@unn.ac.uk Abstract ‘in our culture we know of no organised movement towards power which is not bureaucratic and managerial in mode and we know of no justifications for authority other than those couched in terms of instrumental effectiveness’ (MacIntyre1985:109) This paper considers MacIntyre's (1985) case that management is in itself amoral, its techniques: 'expressions of an instrumental form of reasoning that is concerned with finding the most efficient means by which to achieve given ends but [is] unconcerned about the substance of those ends.’ (Knight 1998, p6) and that claims of management scholars are based on expertise which: ‘turn[s] out to be one more moral fiction, because the kind of knowledge required to sustain it does not exist’ (MacIntyre 1985, p.75) The paper gives detailed consideration to two critiques of this position (Brewer 1997 and Warren 1996). These have attempted to contrast the experience of management as inevitably involving a discourse of 'goodness' and an arena for the achievement of 'goods' (both internal and external) with MacIntyre's pessimistic account. This paper argues that these attempts have failed and suggests reasons why similar attempts also fail.