
Mats Alvesson
Professor

Critical Management Studies : A Critical Review
Author
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
2025
Language
English
Pages
446-483
Publication/Series
Journal of Management Studies
Volume
62
Issue
1
Document type
Journal article review
Publisher
Wiley-Blackwell
Topic
- Business Administration
Keywords
- critical management studies
- critique
- review
Status
Published
ISBN/ISSN/Other
- ISSN: 0022-2380