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Portrait of Mats Alvesson. Photo.

Mats Alvesson

Professor

Portrait of Mats Alvesson. Photo.

Critical Management Studies : A Critical Review

Author

  • André Spicer
  • Mats Alvesson

Summary, in English

In this paper, we review the development of critical management studies, point at problems and explore possible developments. We begin by tracing out two previous waves of critical management studies. We then focus on more recent work in critical management studies and identify ten over-arching themes (Academia, alternatives organizations, control and resistance, discourse, Foucauldian studies, gender, identity, Marxism, post-colonialism, and psychoanalysis). We argue that CMS has largely relied on one-dimensional critique which focused on negation. This has made the field increasingly stale, focused on the usual suspects and predictable. We identify a number of problems calling for critique and rethinking. We label these author-itarianism, obscurantism, formulaic radicalism, usual-suspectism and empirical light-touchism.

Department/s

  • Organizational Studies

Publishing year

2024

Language

English

Publication/Series

Journal of Management Studies

Document type

Journal article review

Publisher

Wiley-Blackwell

Topic

  • Business Administration

Keywords

  • critical management studies
  • critique
  • review

Status

Epub

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 0022-2380