A preliminary theory of managerialism as an ideology

While many know or have used the term Managerialism, the development of a theory about Managerialism remains largely non-existent. When management becomes an ideology we speak of Managerialism reaching beyond the simple administration of a business organisation. Like many “-isms”, Managerialism carries connotations to ideology, thereby leading to the question: what would the development of a theory of Managerialism's ideology look like? Since Managerialism has been largely been clarified (Klikauer, 2013 & 2015), this paper builds on these ideas to examine the question of a theory of Managerialism ideology. This is tackled in three steps: the paper discusses what an ideology is; this is followed by a brief outline of twelve characteristics of ideology delivering a threefold definition of ideology and leading to two schools of thoughts; finally, the paper shows how ideology and Managerialism are linked. The paper's key argument is that any theory development on Managerialism cannot avoid the issue of ideology.