 | This article possibly contains original research .(September 2014) |
Critical management studies (CMS) is a loose but extensive grouping of theoretically informed critiques of management, business and organisation, grounded originally in a critical theory perspective. Today it encompasses a wide range of perspectives that are critical of traditional theories of management and the business schools that generate these theories.
It is widely suggested that CMS began with Mats Alvesson and Hugh Willmott's edited collection Critical Management Studies [1] in 1992. Critical Management Studies (CMS) initially brought together critical theory and post-structuralist writings, but has since developed in more diverse directions.
CMS grows at the same time as the global expansion of business schools, especially in north-western Europe. Decreases in state funding, so the narrative has it, for social sciences and increases in enrolments for business schools during the 1980s resulted in many academics with graduate training in sociology, history, philosophy or related fields of study ending up with jobs "training managers" or training students who wanted to become managers.
These academics brought different theoretical tools and political perspectives into business schools. They began to question the politics of managerialism and to link the techniques of management to neo-liberalism. These new voices drew on the Frankfurt School of critical theory, and the work of Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida and Gilles Deleuze. Later Feminism, queer theory, post-colonial theory, anarchism, ecological philosophies, and radical democratic theory also had some influence.
The roots of CMS are contested but are connected to the series of UK Labour Process Conferences that began in 1983 and reflected the impact of Braverman's attempt to make Marxist categories central to understanding work organisations. Industrial relations and labor studies scholars have joined the CMS fold in the US and northwestern Europe, seeking new opportunities for employment as labor and trade union related programs have diminished in number. At the same time a significant strand of critical accounting studies began to develop marked by the publication of Tony Tinker's book Paper Prophets [2] and the appearance of the journal Critical Perspectives on Accounting. Feminist and Marxist work in the sociology of work and organizations also predates the term CMS.
Contrasting with the dominant origin narrative is an account which states that, along with the contributors to CMS from the intellectual traditions identified here, there is a significant - and overlapping - bloc among CMS scholars of those who have had extensive pre-University experience as workers and managers. The inconsistencies between their experiences in the workplace and the claims of mainstream managerialism, and an intention to connect those experiences to broader explanations and theorizing leads these people to CMS.
The main home of CMS has been in organisation theory and behaviour parts of British, Australian and Scandinavian business schools, [3] though there are strong contributions in related fields such as sociology, sociology of education, and critical pedagogy. [4] Further, contributions stem from accounting with growing interest in other management specialisms, such as marketing, international business, operational research, logistics etc. Since the 1990s academics from North America and other parts of the world are also engaging with this body of writing and research. The CMS Division within the (American) Academy of Management (AoM), with a membership of around 800, is larger and more international than some of its other divisions.
Many heterodox scholars in various parts of the world had been inspired by the international activities of the Standing Conference on Organisational Symbolism. This latter grouping developed work which drew variously on post-structuralism and symbolic interactionism in order to develop a cultural and anthropological understanding of contemporary organizations. Others, though, were without affiliation and/or seeking new formations and alliances. Since 1999 there has been a bi-annual conference, for 'International Critical Management Studies', which has mostly taken place at a UK university with between 100 and 600 delegates. In 2023 the conference took place at Nottingham Business School, hosted by Nottingham Trent University and the University of Nottingham. There have also been some bi-annual conferences held at the (American) Academy of Management.
Today there are some concentrations of CMS scholars in the UK at the School of Business and Management at Queen Mary University of London, the Essex Business School at the University of Essex, the Organization Studies's research cluster at Sheffield University Management School at the University of Sheffield, the Business and Management Department at Royal Holloway, the Business School at Manchester Metropolitan University, and Department of Organisation, Work and Technology at Lancaster University, Bayes Business School at City University of London, and Open University Business School, at Open University. There were concentrations at the University of Leicester, and the Alliance Manchester Business School at the University of Manchester, but this is no longer the case as a result of controversial changes in research strategy. Elsewhere, Copenhagen Business School, Lund School of Economics and Management at Lund University and Istanbul Bilgi University have clusters of CMS scholars.
Many CMS scholars globally rely on journals like: Tamara Journal for Critical Organization Studies, ephemera: theory and politics in organization, Culture and Organization, or Organization: the critical journal of organization, theory and society.
Major points of debate have focused on CMS's relationship with more orthodox forms of Marxism, on the nature and purposes of CMS critique, on questions of inclusion and exclusion, [5] on the possibilities of social transformation from within business schools, [6] and on the development of alternative models of globalisation.
One trend in CMS has seen the incorporation of autonomist Marxist theory, first introduced to the English-speaking world by the work of Michael Hardt and Antonio Negri. New CMS scholars using these theories have interests in proposing alternative non-capitalist forms of organizing work and life - often built around the notion of collective responsibility for the commons. Other developments include engagements with post-colonial theory and critical race theory to investigate the way management and business schools contribute to what Cedric Robinson has called racial capitalism.
Wider impatience with market-managerial forms of organization occur commonly enough outside the business school, from anti-corporate protests to popular-media presentations of managers. CMS attempts to articulate these voices within the business school, and to provide ways of thinking beyond current dominant theories and practices of organizations.
Management is the administration of organizations, whether they are a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administration respectively. It is the process of managing the resources of businesses, governments, and other organizations.
Industrial sociology, until recently a crucial research area within the field of sociology of work, examines "the direction and implications of trends in technological change, globalization, labour markets, work organization, managerial practices and employment relations" to "the extent to which these trends are intimately related to changing patterns of inequality in modern societies and to the changing experiences of individuals and families", and " the ways in which workers challenge, resist and make their own contributions to the patterning of work and shaping of work institutions".
The Frankfurt School is a school of thought in sociology and critical philosophy. It is associated with the Institute for Social Research founded at Goethe University Frankfurt in 1923. Formed during the Weimar Republic during the European interwar period, the first generation of the Frankfurt School was composed of intellectuals, academics, and political dissidents dissatisfied with the socio-economic systems of the 1930s: namely, capitalism, fascism, and communism. Significant figures associated with the school include Max Horkheimer, Theodor Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Wilhelm Reich, Herbert Marcuse, and Jürgen Habermas.
Industrial relations or employment relations is the multidisciplinary academic field that studies the employment relationship; that is, the complex interrelations between employers and employees, labor/trade unions, employer organizations, and the state.
In the social sciences there is a standing debate over the primacy of structure or agency in shaping human behaviour. Structure is the recurrent patterned arrangements which influence or limit the choices and opportunities available. Agency is the capacity of individuals to act independently and to make their own free choices. The structure versus agency debate may be understood as an issue of socialization against autonomy in determining whether an individual acts as a free agent or in a manner dictated by social structure.
Peter McLaren is a Canadian-American scholar and Emeritus Professor of Urban Education at the University of California, Los Angeles, having taught at UCLA from 1993 until 2013. Prior to that, he taught at Miami University of Ohio (1985-1993). Most recently, he served as a Distinguished Professor in Critical Studies at Attallah College of Educational Studies, Chapman University (2013-2023) until his retirement, where he was Co-Director of the Paulo Freire Democratic Project and International Ambassador for Global Ethics and Social Justice. He is the Honorary Director of the Center for Critical Studies in Education at Northeast Normal University, Changchun, China. According to Stanford University's database, McLaren belongs to the top 2% of the world’s most influential scientists.
Jeffery Richard (Jeff) Hearn is a British sociologist, and Research Professor at the University of Huddersfield, and Professor at the Hanken School of Economics.
Managerialism is the idea that professional managers should run organizations in line with organizational routines which produce controllable and measurable results. It applies the procedures of running a for-profit business to any organization, with an emphasis on control, accountability, measurement, strategic planning and the micromanagement of staff.
Business economics is a field in applied economics which uses economic theory and quantitative methods to analyze business enterprises and the factors contributing to the diversity of organizational structures and the relationships of firms with labour, capital and product markets. A professional focus of the journal Business Economics has been expressed as providing "practical information for people who apply economics in their jobs."
Management cybernetics is concerned with the application of cybernetics to management and organizations. "Management cybernetics" was first introduced by Stafford Beer in the late 1950s and introduces the various mechanisms of self-regulation applied by and to organizational settings, as seen through a cybernetics perspective. Beer developed the theory through a combination of practical applications and a series of influential books. The practical applications involved steel production, publishing and operations research in a large variety of different industries. Some consider that the full flowering of management cybernetics is represented in Beer's books. However, learning continues.
Labour process theory (LPT) is a Marxist theory of the organization of work under capitalism. Researchers in critical management studies, organization studies, and related disciplines have used LPT to explain antagonistic relationships between employers and employees in capitalist economies, with a particular focus on problems of deskilling, worker autonomy, and managerial control at the point of production.
Labor and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century is a book about the economics and sociology of work under monopoly capitalism by the political economist Harry Braverman. Building on Monopoly Capital by Paul A. Baran and Paul Sweezy, it was first published in 1974 by Monthly Review Press.
Cultural studies is a politically engaged postdisciplinary academic field that explores the dynamics of especially contemporary culture and its social and historical foundations. Cultural studies researchers generally investigate how cultural practices relate to wider systems of power associated with, or operating through, social phenomena. These include ideology, class structures, national formations, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, and generation. Employing cultural analysis, cultural studies views cultures not as fixed, bounded, stable, and discrete entities, but rather as constantly interacting and changing sets of practices and processes. The field of cultural studies encompasses a range of theoretical and methodological perspectives and practices. Although distinct from the discipline of cultural anthropology and the interdisciplinary field of ethnic studies, cultural studies draws upon and has contributed to each of these fields.
Neo-Marxism is a collection of Marxist schools of thought originating from 20th-century approaches to amend or extend Marxism and Marxist theory, typically by incorporating elements from other intellectual traditions such as critical theory, psychoanalysis, or existentialism. Neo-Marxism comes under the broader framework of the New Left. In a sociological sense, neo-Marxism adds Max Weber's broader understanding of social inequality, such as status and power, to Marxist philosophy.
A critical theory is any approach to humanities and social philosophy that focuses on society and culture to attempt to reveal, critique, and challenge power structures. With roots in sociology and literary criticism, it argues that social problems stem more from social structures and cultural assumptions than from individuals. Some hold it to be an ideology, others argue that ideology is the principal obstacle to human liberation. Critical theory finds applications in various fields of study, including psychoanalysis, film theory, literary theory, cultural studies, history, communication theory, philosophy, and feminist theory.
Mats Alvesson is a Swedish management scholar and professor of business administration at Lund University, particularly known for having made key contributions in forming the field of critical management studies.
Ernest Anthony (Tony) Lowe was a British economist, and Professor of Accounting and Financial Management at the University of Sheffield, known for his work on management control, and management control systems.
John Hassard is a British social scientist specialising in organization theory. He is known for conducting a ‘multiple paradigm’ case study investigation in organizational research.
Christine Cooper is a British accounting academic. She holds a Chair in Accounting at the University of Edinburgh Business School and is co-editor-in-chief of Critical Perspectives on Accounting. Her research examines the economic, political and social impact of accounting.
Social work management is the management of organisations or enterprises in the social economy and non-profit sector, e.g., public service providers, charities, youth welfare offices, associations, etc. Social work management has been traditionally pursued by social workers, social pedagogues, pedagogues, psychologists without additional management skills and knowledge or legal practitioners and business economists – often without reference to the social economy. Furthermore, Social work management is a field of education & practice established since 1980s in Europe & North America that focuses on person-centred leadership, motivation & strategic issues. It manages organizations in social economy & non-profit sector.
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