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Journal of Management Education
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"Why Are There So Many Theories?" a Classroom Exercise To Help Students Appreciate the Need for Multiple Theories of a Management Domain

Marc H. Anderson

University of Waikato

Management educators teaching topics such as motivation and leadership face the challenge of clearly explaining why so many diverse theories exist and why each represents a useful tool worth learning. The large number of "core" theories in these and other management domains often frustrates students, who see the lack of a single, comprehensive theory as indicating that academics do not truly understand the topic. Because students generally evaluate theories according to whether the theories match their personal experience, they may appreciate only one or two as being "correct" or "useful" and dismiss the others as invalid. Building on a "conceptual toolbox" metaphor of education, this article presents a classroom exercise that vividly illustrates why each of the many theories in a management domain is valuable and worth learning. The exercise involves the specific topic of work motivation but can be adapted to any domain involving a large number of core theories.

Key Words: motivation • conceptual toolbox • false-consensus bias • classroom exercise

This version was published on December 1, 2007

Journal of Management Education, Vol. 31, No. 6, 757-776 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1052562906297705
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