Business and management studies in higher education: The challenge of academic legitimacy

Critics argue that the core values of higher education, including academic freedom and intellectual detachment, conflict with the more prosaic aims and ethos of business and management education. Analyses the isolation of business and management studies within this culture by reference to its epistemological, academic, institutional, doctrinal and professional identity. Argues that the ethos of business and management departments closely resembles an academic culture despite perceptions to the contrary in the wider academic community. However, acceptance of business and management in the academy as a legitimate social profession dictates the need for a broader curriculum which treats humanistic values as a central, rather than peripheral, concern. Copyright © 1995 MCB University Press Limited.