Can Aristotle Help Us Specify the Very Nature of Management Problems?

Abstract

The question we address here is: "What is the very nature of managerial problems?". We first argue that real management problems, as opposed to technical problems, are those which do not have "a priori" solutions and for which the arguments for and against any important decision are more or less of equal weight. We then define managerial problems as recurrent dilemmas. Drawing on Aristotle's distinction between theoretical and practical sciences, we then try to analyze the consequences of the previous definition on an epistemological and a pedagogical point of view.