Management fad is a term used to characterize a change in philosophy or operations implemented by a business or institution.The term tends to be used in a pejorative sense, as it implies that such a change is being implemented (often by management on its employees, with little or no input from them) solely because it is (at the time) popular within managerial circles, not due to any real desire for organizational change. The term further implies that once the underlying philosophy is no longer popular, it will be replaced by the newest ‘popular idea, in the same manner and for the same reason as the previous idea.
Several authors have argued that new management ideas should be subject to greater critical analysis, and for the need for greater conceptual awareness of new ideas by managers. A key determinant of whether any management idea is a management fad may be the number and timing of published articles on the idea. If an idea has been discussed for around 3-5 years and the number of articles on the idea in a given year decreases significantly (similar to the right-hand side of a bell curve), then the idea is most likely a ‘management fad.’
The Daily Omnivore 
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