When is a fashion a fashion? The institutionalisation of management fashions as a process of professionalisation

The mainstream literature on management fashions assumes that fashions appear and disappear without having lasting effects. This article identifies the conditions under which management fashions become institutionalised and hence entrenched as management practices. Professionalisation is proposed as a mechanism through which fashions can become legitimate and accepted practice. The argument is developed by identifying the necessary components of professionalisation processes, i.e. (a) the creation and operationalisation of a body of expertise, (b) the establishment and expansion of a professional jurisdiction, and (c) field-wide anchoring via field-wide organisations and networks. In reference to the institutionalist literature on organisational change, it is suggested that this constitutes the emergence of an institutionalised practice via a process of ‘partaking’. The main points are illustrated with primary and secondary evidence on a particular management fashion, Knowledge Management. Management fashion – Management Practice – Profession – Professionalisation – Institutionalisation Knowledge Management