The Bauhaus and the Business School: Exploring Analogies, Resisting Imitation

We offer here a case history of one of the 20th century's most famous organizations: The Bauhaus. In mapping various tensions and contradictions running through the Bauhaus we endeavour to provide a richer texture to the debates on the future of the business school which have become increasingly prominent in the field of management and organization studies. While we explore possible analogies between the Bauhaus and today's business schools, it is this very exploration which we intend to scrutinize at the same time. Our objective is not to mine the Bauhaus as something that existed in the past and whose principles (whatever they are now deemed to be) we can shape into a convenient, handy tool for current management teaching. In looking closely at the Bauhaus example we also detect the pitfalls of tracing straightforward equivalence. Our piece is intended to revitalize the somewhat stale discourse on the future of the business school; it is not offered as a final, one-size-fits-all solution.