An heretical view of management science.

The author is highly critical of the new managerial tools and decision-making modes developed by management scientists in business schools and suggests using "common sense" and "logical simplicity" in management by subdividing work into organizational units.

Abstract

This article is introduced with the statement, "There is only one way to manage, and that is to keep it simple." The author is highly critical of the new managerial tools and decision-making modes developed by management scientists in business schools. He asserts that the use of these tools encourages a "corporations zeal for managerial perfection and threatens it with an excessive and paralyzing professionalism." Instead, Levitt suggests using "common sense" and "logical simplicity" in management by subdividing work into organizational units. This approach is viewed as an easy way to avoid being bogged down by "imagined facts" found in mathematical models. Levitt states that sense and moderation are the keys to success.