Originally published as critical perspectives on international business Volume 4, Issue 2/3, 2008
Guest edited by: Subhabrata Bobby Banerjee and Anshuman Prasad
ISBN: 9 78184 663 8985
This special issue 'Critical reflections on management and organizations: a postcolonial perspective' - is truly global in scope, drawing together 11 papers contributing to postcolonial critiques of management and organization taken from the postcolonialism stream at the International Critical Management Studies Conference 2006.
The papers reflect different aspects of contemporary issues in postcolonialism. In terms of postcolonial geographies the papers cover regions as diverse as Africa, Australia, China, India, Jordan, Malaysia, Poland and the United Kingdom. Postcolonial histories include narratives that describe the construction of modern market citizens in Malaysia, the transition from socialism to capitalism in Poland, colonial overtones in relationships between multinational corporations and subsidiaries in India, the history and construction of corruption discourses in Africa, Eurocentric themes in the construction of Chinese capitalism and Chinese human resources management, the relationship between mining companies and Indigenous communities, cultures of bureaucratic governance of Indigenous communities and Indigenous sovereignty in Australia, hybridity and diversity.
“This collection of brilliant critical and reflective texts, touching upon traditional and new postcolonial topics, presents a fresh perspective on postcolonial organization theory, exploring colonization and colonialism as a variety of cultural and organizational practices. It makes excellent use of the heterogeneity of the field, as it offers a broad and coherent overview of aspects of contemporary issues in postcolonial reflection. Bobby Banerjee and Anshuman Prasad show, by this highly inspiring and thought-provoking set of texts, that postcolonial thought is very relevant and indeed necessary for contemporary management and organization theory.”
– Monika Kostera, Warsaw University, Poland and Växjö University, Sweden
Contents:
Guest editorial: Introduction to the special issue on “Critical reflections on management and organizations: a postcolonial perspective
This paper presents a short note on postcolonialism as a field of critical inquiry in the business management field. The paper states that postcolonial theory seeks to critique and analyse the complex and multifaceted dynamics of modern Western colonialism and to develop an in-depth understanding of the ongoing significance of the colonial encounter for people’s lives both in the West and the non-West. An introduction to the contents of the special issue is also offered.
We’re all stakeholders now: The influence of western discourses of ‘community engagement’ in an Australian Aboriginal community
This paper problematizes the ‘rhetorical elevation’ of indigenous communities to ‘stakeholders’ and argues that stakeholder or community engagement while appearing to empower Indigenous communities may continue to promote colonial modes of development. In his discourse analysis of community engagement at two Australian minerals corporations, the author describes how indigeneity in terms of respect and relationship to land played a key role in indigenous perceptions of understanding and experience of community engagement.
Bureaucratic process as a Morris dance: An ethnographic approach to the culture of bureaucracy in Australian Aboriginal affairs administration
This paper describes the construction and influence of a culture of bureaucracy that pervades the governance of indigenous people in Australia. It shows how a ‘bureaucratic imagination’ determines patterns of action and existence for indigenous people where representations of indigenous life become the ‘raw material of bureaucratic industry’. The material effects of indigenous policy are often directed to sustaining bureaucratic relations determined by hierarchical flows of information and discourses of accountability in the public sector.
Isle of exception: Sovereign power and Palm Island
This paper analyses the political and juridical reactions arising from a death in police custody of Mulrunji, a Palm Islander man. It is argued that the violence of Australia’s colonial past continues to inform its postcolonial present in the material and discursive structures that frame indigenous-non indigenous relations in Australia.
Transfers, training and inscriptions: The production of modern market citizens in Malaysia
Drawing on insights from postcolonial deconstructions of development, this paper highlights the interconnections between knowledge and power and the modernist assumptions that contribute to the active reconstitution of local subjects. It provides a postcolonial perspective of neo-liberal economic development policies in Malaysia, particularly in the context of knowledge transfers and the production of ‘modern market citizens’. Based on ethnographic data the paper shows how knowledge transfer is less a process of skills acquisition and more an outcome of power relations that actively produces local subjects.
Neo-colonialism through measurement: A critique of the corruption perception index
This paper traces the neocolonial assumptions that frame contemporary discourses of economic development particularly in the way concepts of corruption are deployed in the distribution of western aid in Africa. Arguing against ‘monochromatic definitions’ of corruption the author shows how the ‘Corruption Perception Index’, developed and popularized by Transparency International is an inherently flawed measurement index because it measures proxies of corruption while eliding cultural variations.
Hegemony and its discontents: A critical analysis of organizational knowledge transfer
Using the results of an ethnographic study of knowledge transfer between a US multinational and its Indian subsidiary, this paper problematizes the notion of organizational knowledge, particularly in the historical experiences of power differences and economic imbalances that underlie ‘knowledge transfer’ between multinational corporations and their subsidiaries. Their findings indicate that relations at the workplace are the sites of class struggle and alienation and at times reflect relations of imperialism and cultural dislocation.
Understanding social change through post-colonial theory: Reflections on linguistic imperialism and language spread in Poland
Aspects of cultural imperialism that accompany neo-liberal reforms, especially in the case of language, can be seen in several ‘transitional economies’ in Eastern Europe. This paper discusses the social changes taking place in Poland following the collapse of socialism and the transition to a market economy. Arguing that ‘language acquisition’ can be seen as imperialist practice, the author traces the ‘polices and practices of linguistic imperialism’ where the increasing importance of English in Polish society has created new divisions.
A question concerning subject in The Spirit of Chinese Capitalism
This paper provides a critical analysis of S. Gordon Redding’s The Spirit of Chinese Capitalism. It traces the Eurocentric themes that inform the anthropological construction of Chinese subjects and shows how Redding’s production of knowledge about the Chinese is located in a Western normative framework using Western economic categories and organizational structures to understand Chinese businesses.
Let the ‘Other’ speak for itself: Understanding Chinese employees from their perspectives
‘One-way dialogues’ tend to frame interactions between Western expatriate and local managers in multinational corporations located in China. In this paper the results of a qualitative study of human resource management practices in foreign corporations operating in China show an ‘asymmetrical understanding’ between Chinese and non-Chinese managers. Whilst Chinese managers are expected to be knowledgeable about Western business and cultural mores, Western managers are not expected have a similar level of knowledge and understanding.
Women and work in a Jordanian context: Beyond neo-patriarchy
This paper describes an empirical study of employment patterns of women in Jordan. Attempting to disentangle Western stereotypical positions about the role of women in the Middle East, the authors argue that western values are implicit and complicit in charactering many women in the Arab world. Contrary to western stereotypes, the influence of family was often ‘supportive and facilitative’ rather than ‘repressive and stifling’. The authors argue there is a need to challenge established Western frameworks of understanding the role of women in economic development in the non-Western world.
Managing diversity or diversifying management?
In an attempt to understand the dynamics of power, control and resistance within organizations, the authors of this paper apply concepts from postcolonial theory. In particular they explore how notions of hybridity can be used to explain power dynamics in implementing a workplace diversity policy in the voluntary organization sector in the UK. The emergence of hybrid forms of organizing in the voluntary organization sector are described as well as the problems arising from the ‘business case for diversity’ and the ‘dynamics of coercion and control’ experienced by managers.
About critical perspectives on international business
critical perspectives on international business is the only journal that exclusively supports critically reflexive discussion of the nature and impact of international business activity from trans- and multi-disciplinary perspectives, rather than within specific fields. The journal encourages readers to engage with, and build upon, writings and activities from the broader societal context that challenge the hegemony of global and transnational corporations, of managerial orthodoxy and of dominant academic discourse.
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