Managerialism

Managerialism is the idea that organizations should be managed by people who are professional managers, and usually with the aim of achieving particular results that can be measured.

It is an organizational philosophy and practice that emphasizes the application of management techniques and business-oriented approaches across various types of organizations, including private companies, public sector institutions and non-profit entities. The concept centers on the belief that organizations can be optimized through systematic management processes focused on control, accountability, measurement, and strategic planning. Managerialists often justify it on the grounds of improving organizational efficiency, and management has become an academic discipline in its own right. Management scholars view management as a skill or unique style to be developed if one is to successfully manage an organization.

However, critics of the idea argue that managerialism is in fact a worldview similar to neoliberalism where each human is assumed to be an economically motivated homo economicus.

New Public Management is one example of managerialism, where public services were reformed to be more 'businesslike', using quasi-market structures to manage areas such as public healthcare. A common critic is that public facilities being managed by profit motives is antagonistic to human welfare.