Here continues the episodic publication of The Management Contradictionary (Benjamin Marks, Rodney Marks, and Robert Spillane. Michelle Anderson Publishing: Melbourne).
It’s available in all good libraries, and quite a few bad ones, too. It’s in alphabetical order, so feel free to keep reading the blog posts until you get to z, or zzz.
The Management Contradictionary defines the real meaning behind management terms.
action
A delegated task.
activism
The belief that campaigning to bring about political or social change will bring about political or social change.
actors
Managers: those who strut and fret their hour upon the stage, then are heard no more.
actuary
Someone who tells your insurer when you should die.
added value
Something substituted for deducted value.
adhocracy
Any organisational unit other than your own.
administrivia
A management task imposed on you.
advertisement
- An untruth tolerated as entertainment.
- A glowing endorsement organised and paid for by the endorsee.
advertising
Creating demand for something by highlighting its worst feature.
advertising standards
The ethical benchmarking of paid public persuasion.
advisory panel
A pane in the glass.
affairs
Intra-corporate entrepreneurship.
affiliate
noun: A person or organisation with a hierarchical ranking somewhere between an associate and a partner.
verb: To align your values with another’s by disregarding any that are not shared.
affirmative action
Discrimination against the successful.
affluence
Your personal assistant has a PA.
after-sales service
Mythical organisational process, sometimes located in an imaginary, eponymous department with a toll free number.
ageism
The belief that all ages are the same – even in their differences.
agenda
Secret list of outcomes unknown to all meeting participants.
agent
A commissioned friend.
aggression
Part of the managerial power game, compensating for a lack of technical expertise.
AGM (Annual General Meeting)
Yearly public book-ending of apology and astrology, where top management attest they have read what they signed.
agreement
Reluctant, begrudging, antipathetic acceptance.
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