The Relevance of Chester I. Barnard’s Teachings to Contemporary Management Education

This paper explores why Barnard's teachings resonate intensely with current students of management at various levels in our management educational system. I argue that Barnard combines the two cultures of science and art and that it is the aesthetic reading of Barnard (1938) that explains the intensity of students' responses to his work. Barnard's book offers an intense, structured and coherent art form that depends on students using their capacities and readiness to apprehend the aesthetic experience of management based on the author's intimate habitual interested experience.