Spirit and being in management: a Hedieggerian redescription of Drucker

This paper re-describes Drucker's notion of "spirit" in terms of Heidegger's notion of Dasein as being-in-the-world. The aim of doing so is to argue that management is more than set of techniques or tools, that it is a way of being-in-the-world and that research should focus on management less in terms of an ontology of objects and more on it as a way of being. It also aims to show the importance of philosophy for management, for Heideggerian hermeneutic philosophy looks at a phenomenon from within and not in terms of the ontological distinction between subject and object which underpins the sciences and social sciences. Thus the function of Heidegger's philosophy is to provide a framework for enabling the practice of management to be explored from within. The essay also argues that looking at management as a way of being provides a framework within which to write about management as an integrated whole rather than a set of fragmented business functions.