In this paper we discuss, on the basis of system theory, the rigour-relevance gap in management research and the proposal to overcome it. From a system theory perspective, social systems are self-referential or autopoietic, which means that communication elements of one system, such as science, cannot be authentically integrated into communication of other systems, such as the system of a business organization. Social systems can only irritateprovoke -each other, i.e. alter conditions in such a way that other systems are forced to respond. Because of the differences between management science and practice it is impossible to assess relevance of research output within the system of science. On the basis of our analysis we show that neither action research nor Mode 2 research nor recent approaches to collaborative research can succeed in producing research that is rigorous as well as relevant. Researchers and practitioners cannot collaboratively produce research, they can only irritate each other. However, sometimes irritations or provocations turn out inspiring.

A count of publications over a period of time indicates that management concepts come and go like fashions. After a discussion of theories of fashion in aesthetic and technical objects, it is argued that rhetoric, an aesthetic form, is the main fabric of management fashions and that therefore theories of fashion in aesthetic forms are generally applicable to explanations of management fashions. The rise and fall of management fashions, especially fashions in organizational design, will be analysed using a concept of an arena of management fashion. The most important players in this arena are authors of management books, publishers, management seminar organizers and professors of business schools, who in different ways contribute to the attractiveness of the arena and, thereby, to the speed with which the fashion spreads. The best accelerator of a management fashion is a management bestseller which applies a specific rhetoric. Management fashions and the principles propagated by them prove useful in restructuring projects within organizations. They simplify the process of initiation and conceptualization as well as the coordination between parallel restructuring sub-projects; they are useful tools in political manoeuvres during the implementation process and they help in making the organization appear rational after the completion of the restructuring process. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of management fashions for the relationship between theory and practice.

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