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Carol A. Adams, Marielle G. Heijltjes, Gavin Jack, Tim Marjoribanks and Michael Powell
This paper seeks to discuss the role of business academics and business schools in the development of leaders able to respond to climate change and sustainability challenges.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to discuss the role of business academics and business schools in the development of leaders able to respond to climate change and sustainability challenges.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper captures contributions made during a panel discussion at the First Academic Symposium on Leadership for Climate Change and Sustainability held at La Trobe University, Melbourne in February 2011. The Symposium preceded the 10th General Assembly of the Globally Responsible Leadership Initiative (GRLI) held in Melbourne and the authors are from GRLI partner organisations.
Findings
There is a pressing need for business schools to focus on the development of personal and leadership skills, to draw staff from outside the traditional business disciplines and to reflect the gender and race diversity of the population in which they are located. The change required in business education to develop leaders who can respond to climate change and sustainability challenges is as significant as the changes needed to the way businesses operate.
Practical implications
The paper identifies changes required in business leadership and outlines key elements of change needed in business education. It assists business school leaders in articulating the business case for business schools to address these issues and navigate potential barriers.
Originality/value
The paper brings together the views of five professors from a different disciplinary background (accounting, critical management, organisational behaviour, organisational design and sociology) with leadership positions in business schools and universities.
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Natalie Victoria Wilmot and Susanne Tietze
This study aims to investigate the treatment of translation within the international business and management (IBM) literature to highlight colonialist assumptions inscribed in…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the treatment of translation within the international business and management (IBM) literature to highlight colonialist assumptions inscribed in this treatment as a result of the hegemonic status of English.
Design/methodology/approach
This investigation takes the form of a systemic literature review to examine the treatment of translation in the IBM literature through a postcolonial lens.
Findings
The findings demonstrate that despite growing interest in language in international business, matters of translation have received comparatively little attention. However, those articles that do address translation matters tend to do so in five key ways, including epistemological/methodological considerations, exploring translator agency, the investigations of the discursive void/conceptual fuzziness between languages, and approaches that discuss translation as social practice.
Research limitations/implications
Despite the authors’ critique of English-language hegemony, this literature review is restricted to English-language journals, which the authors acknowledge as problematic and discuss within the article.
Practical implications
In exposing the limited treatment of translation within the literature, the authors provide a call to action for IBM scholars to be more explicit in their treatment of translation to ensure representation of cultural and linguistic Others, rather than providing domesticated accounts of multilingual research.
Originality/value
Although there have been other articles that have examined translation in the past, this paper is the first to do so through a postcolonial lens, demonstrating from a linguistic perspective the colonialist assumptions that are still prevalent in IBM knowledge production, as evidenced by the treatment of translation in the field.
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Submitted in the form of a manifesto, this article seeks to make a call to scholars in international management and business studies to embrace post‐colonial theory and to allow…
Abstract
Purpose
Submitted in the form of a manifesto, this article seeks to make a call to scholars in international management and business studies to embrace post‐colonial theory and to allow it to provide an interrogation of the ontological, epistemological, methodological and institutional resources currently dominating the field.
Design/methodology/approach
A manifesto approach is adopted in providing a series of deliberately provocative principles which it seeks to have the field adopt.
Findings
The paper finds the field to be currently imprisoned within a limited and limiting paradigmatic and institutional location and offers the resources of post‐colonial theory as a way to interrogate and reconfigure it.
Research limitations/implications
The paper points to the limitations of the field and provides the grounds for a radical reconfiguration across all aspects of its knowledge production, dissemination and research practice.
Practical implications
The paper offers practical steps which the field can take to reconfigure itself more appropriately in terms of its various research commitments and its institutional frame.
Originality/value
This article offers an original assessment of the orthodoxy currently controlling and disciplining the field, presented in the relatively novel and challenging form of a manifesto.
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Robert Westwood and Gavin Jack
This paper seeks to present an analysis of the historical emergence of international business and management studies (IBMS) within the context of the post‐World War II USA. It…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper seeks to present an analysis of the historical emergence of international business and management studies (IBMS) within the context of the post‐World War II USA. It seeks to show how certain conditions of this time and place shaped the orientation of foundational IBMS texts and set a course for the subsequent development of the field.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach is primarily conceptual. The paper pursues both a historical analysis and a close reading of foundational texts within IBMS. It first examines the key conditions for the emergence of IBMS including: the internationalization of the US economy and businesses; the Cold War and perceived expansion of Soviet interests; and finally decolonisation processes around the world. These are interrelated aspects of a commercial‐military‐political complex, which simultaneously enabled and constrained the emergence of IBMS scholarship. The paper moves on to link these conditions to two seminal IBMS texts.
Findings
The paper reveals the localised and particular conditions that surrounded the emergence of IBMS and how IBMS was constituted to serve particular and localised interests associated with those conditions.
Originality/value
The paper's originality and value lie in a unique historical and discursive analysis of the conditions for the emergence of IBMS that were, in part, instrumental in the development of the field. It thus responds to calls for a “historical turn” in International Business scholarship.
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This chapter delves into the complex perception of national culture within cross-cultural management. It critiques the essentialist views that regard national culture as static…
Abstract
This chapter delves into the complex perception of national culture within cross-cultural management. It critiques the essentialist views that regard national culture as static and homogeneous, emphasizing instead the dynamic interplay of historical, social, and political forces that shape national identity. The chapter traces the origins of essentialist perspectives, highlighting influential thinkers like Durkheim, Jung, Schmitt, and Parsons, who contributed to these views during the colonial era. It critiques their theories for perpetuating a static and exclusionary understanding of culture and identity. The text discusses how cross-cultural management emerged as an academic field, initially embracing essentialist views for their simplicity in explaining cultural differences. Influential models like Hofstede’s cultural dimensions reinforced these views by categorizing national cultures into binary scales, often favoring Western countries. The chapter highlights the extensive critique of Hofstede’s model for its ethnocentric biases and lack of empirical rigor. The chapter advocates for incorporating postcolonial perspectives in management practices, emphasizing the need to understand culture as dynamic and constructed through power relations. It explores postcolonial theories by scholars like Said, Bhabha, Spivak, and Mignolo, who challenge colonial legacies and advocate for decolonizing knowledge and management practices. These theories highlight issues of otherness, mimicry, and cultural hybridity, offering deeper insights into the experiences of marginalized communities. The text also examines internal colonialism within contemporary societies, drawing parallels between traditional colonial practices and the exploitation of immigrant communities in Western countries. It underscores the need for a critical reimagining of management and organizational practices to promote social change and address power imbalances.