Department of Management Assistant Professor Logan Steele has been published in the Academy of Management Learning and Education, a journal with high scholarly influence and impact in the fields of management and educational research. Steele published the paper “The Meritocratic Narrative Is the Worst Story Except for All the Others: A Response to Eisenman et al. (2024).”
Steele’s paper looks closely at meritocracy, or the common idea that hard work and talent always leads to success. His paper responds to an article in which the authors say that business school educators should be actively working to undermine students’ belief that we live in a meritocratic society. Instead, Steele argues that even with its problems, the idea of meritocracy is still better than historical ways of getting ahead, like favoritism or personal connections. He points out that students today are understandably skeptical of meritocracy, as social mobility declines and the traditional routes to achieving success in life have become less guaranteed than they were just 20 years ago. Nevertheless, he suggests believing that effort yields positive outcomes is vitally important for students because it provides the motivation they need to dedicate themselves to striving for excellence in their chosen professions.
Rather than completely abandoning the idea of meritocracy, the main takeaway from Steele’s paper is that we should strive to improve it. This means recognizing that luck and outside factors play a role, broadening what we consider “merit” to include skills and contributions beyond just intellectual ability, and focusing more on how individual success can benefit the community. Simply tearing down the idea of meritocracy without offering something better could lead back to less fair systems, he says.