A New Approach to New Business Novels: An Experiment with The Goal

Abstract

From the 1980s, a new kind of business novels has been published. Different from the previous business novels which are focused on the main characters of businessmen, the new novels are mainly for teaching readers management principles effectively. This paper test if literary scholars may contribute to the more effective teaching of the readers by providing them with fresh perspectives that not only readers but also authors fail to have. For the test, it analyzes Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox’s The Goal, the first novel among new business novels using theories of organizational cultures. The analyses of characters and events reveal that the management principles which are the central message of the novel are based on a certain organizational culture whose characteristics are quite different from that to which Alex Rogo, the protagonist and plant manager, and his staff are accustomed. Particularly, this paper points out that the conflicts described in the novel are mainly in the categories of the specific/context and the individualism/collectivism. This finding will help people to implement the principles with greater success, and diverse approaches—more literary than that of this paper—may help business in various ways.