False binaries in management history, and the scope for a postcolonial project
ISSN: 1751-1348
Article publication date: 2 December 2020
Issue publication date: 29 January 2021
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to offer a postcolonial approach that goes past current management history controversies.
Design/methodology/approach
Discussion of current management history controversies with examples.
Findings
Post-colonial approaches to management history enable engagement with questions of power and knowledge in the management discipline.
Research limitations/implications
Further historical research is needed that considers the interplay of disciplinary knowledge and the historical events under question, especially in post-colonial settings.
Practical implications
It is essential to engage with historical texts and interpretations to better understand the contextual limitations to management as a discipline: a better understanding of disciplinary pasts enables us to better understand the present.
Social implications
By considering management’s pasts, this paper can acknowledge more closely how the discipline continues to retain colonialist assumptions that need to be challenged and changed.
Originality/value
Examples of management history from formerly colonized regions.
Keywords
Citation
Srinivas, N. (2021), "False binaries in management history, and the scope for a postcolonial project", Journal of Management History, Vol. 27 No. 1, pp. 121-140. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMH-08-2020-0050
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited