Like that curious lad, I'd like to pose a question Who's managing your company? You might be tempted to answer, "the CEO," or "the executive team," or "all of us in middle management." And you'd be right, but that wouldn't be the whole truth. To a large extent, your company is being managed right now by a small coterie of long- departed theorists and practitioners who invented the rules and conventions of "modern" management back in the early years of the 20th century. They are the poltergeists who inhabit the musty machinery of management It is their edicts, echoing across the decades, that invisibly shape the way your company allocates resources, sets budgets, distributes power, rewards people, and makes decisions.