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CRITICAL MANAGEMENT STUDIES:
A PROPOSAL FOR A WORKSHOP IN THE ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT
version: Oct 11, 1997
As members of the Academy of Management, we feel the need for a forum in
which we can share and develop critical views of management. We propose
to
create an ongoing Critical Management Studies (CMS) workshop that would
bring together people based on a shared belief and commitment. Our
shared
belief is that management of the modern firm (and often of other types
of
organizations too) is guided by a narrow goal -- profits -- rather than
by
the interests of society as a whole, and that other goals -- justice,
community, human development, ecological balance -- should be brought to
bear on the governance of economic activity. We are fundamentally
critical
of the notion that the pursuit of profit will automatically satisfy
these
broader goals. We believe the such a one-sided system extracts an
unacceptably high social cost for whatever progress it offers. Guided by
such narrow goals, the firm is a structure of domination; our shared
commitment is to helping people free themselves from that domination.
The
CMS workshop's objective is therefore the development of critical
interpretations of management -- interpretations that are critical not
of
poor management nor of individual managers, but of the system of
business
and management that reproduces this one-sidedness.
The common denominator is the conviction that the Academy OF Management
is
not just the Academy FOR Management.
In proposing the creation of a CMS workshop, we are not attempting to
withdraw from the mainstream of the AoM. Indeed, some existing divisions
have been rather hospitable to views more critical of management and
business. But the development of good critical research will be aided,
we
believe, by the creation of a specific grouping within the Academy
devoted
to helping each other in this task.
Our proposed workshop would be open to a broad range of critical views.
We
hope to foster critiques coming from labor, feminist, anti-racist,
ecological, and other perspectives. We will be open to critiques
formulated
from a broad range of theoretical standpoints. In particular, our use of
the term "critical" is not meant to signal a specific commitment to any
particular school of thought such as Frankfurt School critical theory.
Rather our aim is to include proponents of all the various theoretical
traditions that can help us understand the oppressive character of the
current management and business system. To use some of the labels ready
at
hand, these traditions include, but are not restricted to: marxist,
post-marxist, post-modernist, feminist, ecological, irreductionist,
critical-realist, post-colonial.
We believe that the Academy's research will be enriched and enlivened by
more active debate over the legitimacy, equity, and efficiency of what
we
would call the current structures of domination, whether we see these
structures as based on class, gender, racism, productivist ideologies,
or
hierarchies of knowledge. We believe management research should seek to
identify the cultures and social processes of the least visible and the
least powerful within organizations, to help make their voices heard in
debates over organizations and how they are and should be managed.
We also believe that we could play our role as teachers in business
schools
and in other settings more effectively if our students were more
frequently
exposed to the debates over these themes -- debates that are common in
the
broader social world in which we live, but insufficiently recognized in
our
classrooms. Business schools and the other professional schools in which
many of us teach (public administration, hospital administration, etc.)
should be creating thoughtful practitioners capable of engaging these
issues both inside the corporation as managers and outside it as
citizens.
In bringing critically-minded management scholars together, our goals
are
therefore:
1. to help ourselves:
* to become more of a community, providing moral and intellectual
support
* to help each other find the courage and wisdom that would allow our
work
to be more directly informed by - and perhaps challenge - our
convictions
* to help each other do better, more critical research
2. to help the Academy of Management:
* to enrich and enliven our discourse and debates, linking them more
directly to the broader debates that swirl around us
* to help change business schools and other professional schools so that
students -- future managers -- get more exposure to critical views of
management
3. to help the causes we believe in:
* to serve as a bridge and opportunity for mutual learning between
critical
management scholars and activists in the labor movement and other social
movements that could benefit from our "insider understanding" of
management
practice and theory.
The CMS workshop will, we hope, be on ongoing community that meets
face-to-face during the pre-conference program of the annual AoM
meetings
and that continues its dialogue between these meetings via a
listserve-type
link.
The organization of our first event for the San Diego AoM meeting is in
its
very preliminary stages, so we are eagerly seeking people who would like
to
help us to design and organize it.
Paul Adler is currently coordinating our efforts. He can be reached at
padler@usc.edu.
We look forward to hearing from you -- with suggestions, criticisms, and
comments. Your message would be particularly useful if somewhere in it,
you
answered these questions:
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1. I would to be listed as a sponsor of this initiative (which means
that
you support it, and that you are a member of the Academy of Management)
YES / NO
2. I would like to listed as a non-Academy of Management supporter
YES / NO
3. I would like to help organize activities for the proposed workshop
meeting YES / NO
4. I would rather not be listed, but I would like to stay informed of
the
workshop activities
YES / NO
Send your responses to:
padler@usc.edu
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Please circulate this proposal to anyone you think shares our
perspective!
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INITIAL SPONSORS
Paul Adler, University of Southern California
James R. Barker, US Air Force Academy
Stephen Barley, Stanford University
David M. Boje, New Mexico State University
Charles Booth, Bristol Business School, UK
Hamid Bouchikhi, ESSEC, France
Michael Chumer, Rutgers University
Marta Calás, University of Mass., Amherst
George Cheney, University of Montana-Missoula
Stewart Clegg, University of Technology Sydney, Australia
Suzy Comerford, Case Western Reserve University
Tom Cummings, University of Southern California
Greg Daneke, Arizona State University
Ray Dart, Trent University/York University, Canada
Jerry Davis, Columbia University
Emmeline DePillis, University of Hawaii-Hilo
Deborah Dougherty, McGill University
Robin Ely, Columbia University
Stephen Fineman, University of Bath, UK
Dale Fitzgibbons, Illinois State University
Erica Foldy, Boston College
Mary Fambrough, Case Western Reserve University
Jeanie Forray, Eastern Connecticut State University
Peter Frost, University of British Columbia, Canada
Clive Gilson, University of Waikato, New Zealand
John Hassard, Keele University, UK
Cynthia Hardy, McGill University
Mary Jo Hatch, Cranfield School of Management, UK
Roy Jacques, University of Otago, New Zealand
John Jermier, University of South Florida
Bill Kaghan, University of Washington
Martin Kenney, UC Davis
Deborah Kolb, Simmons College
Thomas Lawrence, University of Victoria, Canada
Michael Lounsbury, Northwestern University
John Luhman, New Mexico State University
Richard Marens, University of Washington
Joanne Martin, Stanford University
Michael Mauws, University of Alberta
Don McCormick, Antioch University
Alan Meyer, University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong
Debra Meyerson, Stanford University
Ian I. Mitroff, University of Southern California
Dennis Mumby, Purdue University
Robert Myrtle, University of Southern California
Dr. Stella Nkomo, University of North Carolina, Charlotte
Walter Nord, University of South Florida
Grace Ann Rosile, New Mexico State University
Paul Shrivastava, Bucknell University
Linda Smircich, University of Mass., Amherst
Andy Smith, Charles Sturt University, Australia
Ralph Stablein, University of Otago, New Zealand
Christa Walck, Michigan Technological University
Ely Weitz, Tel Aviv University, Israel
NON-AOM SUPPORTERS
A. R. Kian Abolfazlian, Aarhus School of Business, Denmark
Giorgio V. Brandolini, Centro di Ricerca Fitotecnica, Bergamo, Italy
Christian De Cock, University of London, UK
Rick Delbridge, Cardiff Business School, UK
Yrjö Engeström, UC San Diego/University of Helsinki
Jon Foster-Pedley, University of Cape Town, South Africa
Peter Kangis, University of Surrey, UK
David Levine, UC Berkeley
Alan Lowe, University of Waikato, New Zealand
Jim Lowe, Cardiff Business School, UK
Bernhard Mark-Ungericht, University of Graz, Austria
David E. Morgan, University of New South Wales, Australia
Mervin Morris, Charles Sturt University, Australia
Martin Parker, University of Keele, UK
Michael E. Payne, National-Louis University
Keijo Räsänen, Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration,
Finland
Mike Reed, Lancaster University, UK
Graham Sewell, University of Melbourne, Australia
Hugh Willmott, Manchester School of Management, UK
Dominic Wilson, University of Manchester Institute of Science and
Technology, UK
Nigel van Zwanenberg, Newcastle Business School, UK
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APPENDIX:
VERY Rough Sketch of a CMS Workshop meeting -- please send your comments
and suggestions to
padler@usc.edu!!
SATURDAY
7:00-8:00 continental breakfast, milling around
8:00-8:45 Opening: why we are here?
One or two people to open things with short
statements,
then perhaps open to the floor for other
thoughts on
expectations, hopes
8:45-10:00 Breakout discussions: why am I here?
People at each table (approx. 6 per table) take
turns
(count approx 15 min per person) introducing
themselves,
their "critical" interests, talk about their
expectations of a workshop
10:00-10:30 coffee break
10:30-12:00 Discussion groups on substantive themes
break into (how many?) groups of about 20 to
discuss a
set of papers/presentations on a common
substantive
theme such as:
* labor issues in mgt studies...
* critical vs other perspectives in studies
on...
* bringing critical perspectives into the
classroom....
12:00-1:00 lunch: preferably on site, at round tables, to get to
know each
other
1:00-3:30 Our work: a couple of presentations about how some of us
have
brought their critical views into their research
(2
x 30
mins). Followed by breakout discussions at each
table on
this theme (60 minutes), plus report backs to
plenary
(30 mins)
3:30-4:00 coffee break
4:00-5:30 panel discussion with activists: bridges we could build
approx 3 invited panelists (from unions,
progressive
third parties, social movements,
progressive think-tanks) talk about issues
they would like to see mgt researchers address;
responses from approx 2 invited CMS people;
floor
discussion
and/or panel discussion on critical management studies
in other
parts of the world: learning from our friends in
other
countries
5:30 adjourn
SUNDAY
7:00-8:00 continental breakfast
8:00-10:00 how far have we come and where do we go from here?
A couple of panelist and floor discussion sizing
up
Saturday's highs and lows, then identifying
opportunities for the coming year
10:00-10:30 coffee break
10:30-12:00 organizing for the next steps: how should this workshop
be
organized, managed, governed?
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Contact:
Prof. Paul S. Adler
Management and Organization Dept
Marshall School of Business
University of Southern California
Los Angeles CA 90089-1421
tel (213) 740-0748
fax (818) 981-0116
email:
padler@usc.edu
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