Task Management Study & Rumours Doc

[David]

That Debra R. Comer name rings a bell. Isn't she the author of that would-be academic article that fans found online a decade or so ago?

I think the sociology of management "science" is largely bunk, and this article is probably accurately representative of the intellectual sloppiness. How can anyone extrapolate group-dynamic and conflict concepts from the recording of Rumours without having to rely almost completely on hearsay, bad memories, and secondary and tertiary research?

What documentary (I use that term loosely) did these two pedagogues use? The VH-1 "Behind the Music"? Does the pop-commercial superficiality of "Behind the Music" serve as an acceptable basis for sociological study? No way.

Even the abstract is bunk and filled with faddish jargon and weasel words for concepts that are as shifting, subjective, and vague as a fog bank. "Group cohesiveness," "conflict within groups," "group effectiveness" (what makes a group effective? or what is group effectiveness?), "group roles," etc. etc. How can anyone have any idea A) what this means, and B) how it applies to the recording of Rumours without having seriously examined that entire experience in mind-numbing detail according to the precepts of sociological analysis? I'm sorry, but reading Rolling Stone and watching "Behind the Music" don't cut it, not by a long shot.

The abstract also refers to the group's "complexity" (what does that mean? does it apply only to Fleetwood Mac? does it individuate Fleetwood Mac from other rock bands, or even from groups of people sitting in a circle banging rocks together?), and to the notion that this group created a "high-caliber product." The aesthetic quality of Rumours is not a suitable topic of sociological analysis: it's a judicial call whose only external, verifiable reference is to the problematic notion of public reputation (problematic because millions of people think they like the album and millions more can't stand it, and there's no way to quantify such stuff).