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"Is management science" or art? What can we learn from this misunderstanding?

In classes and lectures of introduction to administration, when the question "What do you think: Is administration science or art?" is asked, the audience is always curious. We face here an interesting and discussion-stimulating dictum. This article has two goals: to disclose the question ambiguity - maybe one of the reasons for its survival - and from there, analyze how appropriate it is to discuss "scientificity" in our knowledge system, an important question for academic routes in that area. For the first - more modest - goal, we will use language pragmatic and semantic analysis; for the second, concentrating most of the text, theories about science nature and the intended distinction between science and non-science. Evidences arise, then, that the dictum contains a misunderstanding.

Scientificity in administration; science-administration; art-administration; academic activity; scientific marking


Fundação Getulio Vargas, Escola de Administração de Empresas de S.Paulo Avenida Nove de Julho, 2.029, Bela Vista, CEP: 01313-902, Telefone: +55 (11) 3799-7718 - São Paulo - SP - Brazil
E-mail: rae@fgv.br