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Critical management studies (CMS) is a loose but rapidly growing grouping of politically left wing and theoretically innovative approaches to management, business and organisation. It encompasses a wide range of perspectives that are critical of traditional theories of management. In politics, left-wing, political left, leftism, or simply the left, are terms that refer (with no particular precision) to the segment of the political spectrum typically associated with any of several strains of socialism, social democracy, or liberalism (especially but not exclusively in the American sense of the word...
The term management characterizes the process of and/or the personnel leading and directing all or part of an organization (often a business) through the deployment and manipulation of resources (human, financial, material, intellectual or intangible). ...
History It is generally accepted that CMS began with Mats Alvesson and Hugh Willmott's edited collection Critical Management Studies (1992). Critical Management Studies (CMS) initially brought together critical theory and post-structuralist writings, but has since developed in more diverse directions. In the humanities and social sciences, critical theory has two quite different meanings with different origins and histories, one originating in social theory and the other in literary criticism. ...
Post-structuralism is a body of work that followed in the wake of structuralism, and sought to understand the Western world as a network of structures, as in structuralism, but in which such structures are ordered primarily by local, shifting differences (as in deconstruction) rather than grand binary oppositions and...
A dominant narrative within CMS is that perhaps the most important development in its stimulation was the global expansion of business schools, an American invention, especially in Europe. Decreases in state funding, so the narrative has it, for social sciences and increases in funding for business schools during the 1980s resulted in many academics with graduate training in sociology, history, philosophy, psychology and other social sciences ending up with jobs "training managers". What Business Schools are or should do has always been debated, however. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...
in 1930 was when the first traces of humans where discovered by cochroaches. ...
For other uses, see Philosophy (disambiguation). ...
Psychology is an academic and applied discipline involving the scientific study of mental processes and behavior. ...
These academics brought different theoretical tools and political perspectives into business schools. They began to question the politics of managerialism and did not automatically buy into its often conservative ideology. These new voices drew on the Frankfurt School of critical theory, and the work of Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida and Gilles Deleuze. Feminism, queer theory, post-colonial theory, anarchism, ecological philosophies, and radical democratic theory also had some influence. (See Alvesson and Willmott 2003 for a recent survey of the field.) Max Horkheimer (front left), Theodor Adorno (front right), and Jürgen Habermas in the background, right, in 1965 at Heidelberg The Frankfurt School is a school of neo-Marxist social theory (which is more akin to anarchism than communism), social research, and philosophy. ...
Michel Foucault (IPA pronunciation: ; English-speakers pronunciation varies) (October 15, 1926 – June 25, 1984) was a French philosopher and historian. ...
Jacques Derrida (July 15, 1930 – October 8, 2004) was an Algerian-born French philosopher, known as the founder of deconstruction. ...
Gilles Deleuze (IPA: ), (January 18, 1925 – November 4, 1995) was a French philosopher of the late 20th century. ...
Feminism is a collection of social theories, political movements, and moral philosophies largely motivated by or concerned with the liberation of women. ...
This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ...
Postcolonial theory is a literary theory or critical approach that deals with literature produced in countries that were once, or are now, colonies of other countries. ...
Anarchism is a political philosophy or group of doctrines and attitudes centered on rejection of any form of compulsory government (cf. ...
The roots of CMS also came from a series of UK Labour Process Conferences that began in 1983 and reflected the impact of Braverman's (1974) attempt to make Marxist categories central to understanding work organisations. Industrial relations and labor studies scholars have joined the CMS fold in the US, seeking new opportunities for employment as labor-related programs have diminished in number. Harry Braverman (1920 – 1976) was an American Communist and political writer. ...
Marxism is the political practice and social theory based on the works of Karl Marx, a 19th century philosopher, economist, journalist, and revolutionary, along with Friedrich Engels. ...
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.
Geographical base The main home of CMS has been in the organisation theory and behaviour parts of British, Australian and Scandinavian business schools, though there are strong conrtibutions in related fields such as accounting with growing interest in other management specialisms, such as marketing,international business, operational research, 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 Interest Group within the (American) Academy of Management (AoM), with a membership of around 800, is larger than some of its Divisions and is more international than any Division. 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 CMS conference held in the UK as well as workshops and a bi-annual conference held at US Academy of Management. Organizational studies, organizational behavior, and organizational theory are related terms for the academic study of organizations, examining them using the methods of economics, sociology, political science, anthropology, and psychology. ...
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Symbolic interactionism is a sociological perspective which examines how individuals and groups interact, focusing on the creation of personal identity through interaction with others. ...
Initiation rite of the Yao people of Malawi Anthropology (from the Greek word , man or person) consists of the study of humanity (see genus Homo). ...
Controversy and debate Main points of debate now centre on the relationship with more orthodox forms of Marxism, the nature and purposes of CMS critique, as well as questions of inclusion and exclusion (Fournier and Grey 2000), the possibilities of social transformation from within business schools (Parker 2002), and the development of alternative models of globalisation. Martin Parker (c. ...
Wider impatience with market managerial forms of organization are common enough outside the business school, from anti-corporate protest to popular media presentations of managers. What CMS attempts to do is to articulate these voices within the business school, and provide ways of thinking beyond current dominant theories and practices of organization. Anti-corporate activists (see activism) believe that the rise of large business corporations is posing a threat to the legitimate authority of nation states and the public sphere. ...
See also Critical legal studies refers to a movement in legal thought that applied methods similar to those of critical theory (the Frankfurt School) to law. ...
Phronetic organization research is phronetic social science employed in the specific study of organizations and management. ...
Critical psychology is both a critique of mainstream psychology and an attempt to apply psychology in more progressive ways (based, for example, on Marxist or feminist analyses) and contexts than have thus far been the case. ...
References - Alvesson, M and Willmott, H (eds) (1992) Critical Management Studies. London: Sage.
- Alvesson, M and Willmott, H (eds) (2003) Studying Management Critically. London: Sage.
- Braverman, H (1974) Labor and Monopoly Capital. New York: Monthly Review Press.
- Fournier, V and Grey, C (2000) 'At the Critical Moment'. Human Relations.
- Parker, M (2002) Against Management: Organisation in the Age of Managerialism. Oxford: Polity. ISBN 0-7456-2926-1.
- Grey, C. and Willmott, H.C. (2005), Critical Management Studies: A Reader, Oxford University Press
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