Zen and Management Education

Abstract

Leadership and entrepreneurship professors routinely mention egolessness as a management virtue. Information technology companies use Zen imagery to tout the tranquility their solutions will engender. Lucent adopted the enso as its corporate logo. The vocabulary of Zen now pervades the Western business world. Is it a fad, or can Zen principles truly enhance management and management education? Which precepts of Zen are likely to lead to better management practice and which are not? Can mushin, the Zen aversion to over-intellectualization, be reconciled with the university’s orientation to critical thinking? This paper calls on authoritative sources to answer these questions, and provides practical advice for inserting Zen concepts and exercises into MBA curricula.