JOURNAL OF BUSINESS ETHICS —Special Issue— CRITICAL MANAGEMENT STUDIES AND BUSINESS ETHICS: CHALLENGING PARADIGMS, CHANGING PARADIGMS
As a field within organization and management theory, “critical management studies” (CMS) has acquired much academic currency since its inception in the early 1990s. Indeed, since Mats Alvesson and Hugh Willmott adopted the term for the title of their influential 1992 edited volume, there has “been a proliferation of publications, conference streams and academic networks devoted to discussion of „critical management‟” (Fournier and Grey, 2000, p. 8). While the precise meaning and the disciplinary boundaries of CMS remain contested, the CMS division of the Academy of Management defines it broadly as: [T]he expression of views critical of unethical management practices and exploitative social order. Our premise is that structural features of contemporary society, such as the profit imperative, patriarchy, racial inequality, and ecological irresponsibility often turn organizations into instruments of domination and exploitation. Driven by a shared desire to change this situation, we aim in our research, teaching, and practices to develop critical interpretations of management and society and to generate radical alternatives. In sum, CMS endeavors to challenge the “„natural order‟ of institutional arrangements” and, in so doing, to illuminate and dismantle the undergirding systems of domination that pejoratively affects individuals and society (Cunliffe et al., 2002, p. 489; Mills et al., 2005). While CMS perspectives are gaining purchase within organization studies, only scant attention has thus far been devoted to how such perspectives can inform the study of business ethics (Boje, 2008). As Adler, Forbes, and Willmott (2007) suggest in their recent synthesis of CMS scholarship, if business ethics studies were grounded in critical theoretical paradigms new trajectories for studying timely phenomena such as organizational corruption, corporate environmentalism, and corporate (ir)responsibility would surely emerge. Indeed, it has been CMS perspectives that have provided the initial analytical thrust for conceptualizing the pejorative dimensions of corporate social responsibility (Banerjee, 2008). With the aim to address the void in the present literature and to identify future research directions for this field of study, we invite both conceptual and empirical papers for publication consideration on a wide range of subjects posited at the broad nexus between CMS and business ethics. Papers might include, but are certainly not limited to, the following topics: - Conceptual papers which consider how critical theoretical perspectives (i.e. poststructuralist, postmodernist, postcolonial, feminist, Marxist, existentialist, and psychoanalytic theories) can inform the study of business ethics. - Critical analyses of central business ethics concepts such as CSR and the triple bottom line.
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Papers that elucidate underlying ontological and epistemological assumptions of mainstream business ethics paradigms. Critical approaches to the study of topics germane to business ethics such as „diversity‟ and „diversity management‟ (for example, what are the implications for the business case for „diversity‟?). Research methods papers which explain how CMS scholars might approach the study of business ethics in the future. Empirical studies on business ethics which apply a CMS lens.
These topics are merely representative and not exhaustive; as such, provisional inquiries are most welcomed. Complete papers are due by 31 July 2009 and should be submitted by e-mail to both guest editors, Ajnesh Prasad (aprasad06@schulich.yorku.ca) and Albert J. Mills (albert.mills@smu.ca).
GUEST EDITORS Ajnesh Prasad Schulich School of Business York University 4700 Keele Street Toronto, Ontario Canada, M3J 1P3 P: 1.416.736.2100 x. 20265 F: 1.416.736.5687 E: aprasad06@schulich.yorku.ca Albert J. Mills Department of Management Sobey School of Business St. Mary‟s University Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada, B3H 3C3 P: 1.902.420.5778 F: 1.902.420.2119 E: albert.mills@smu.ca
REFERENCES Adler, P. S., Forbes, L. C. and Willmott, H.: 2007, „Critical Management Studies‟, in J. P. Walsh and A. P. Brief (eds.), The Academy of Management Annals, Vol. 1, (Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ), pp. 119-179. Alvesson, M. and Willmott, H. (Eds.): 1992, Critical Management Studies. London: Sage. Banerjee, S. B.: 2008, „Corporate Social Responsibility: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly‟ Critical Sociology 34(1): 51-79. Boje, D. (Ed.): 2008, Critical Theory in Business Ethics. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publications. Critical Management Studies Division of the Academy of Management: 1998, „Domain Statement‟, retrieved on 19 August 2008 from: http://group.aomonline.org/cms/About/Domain.htm Cunliffe, A., Forray, J. M. and Knights, D.: 2002, „Considering Management Education: Insights from Critical Management Studies‟, Journal of Management Education 26(5): 489-495. Fournier, V. and Grey, C.: 2000, „At the Critical Moment: Conditions and Prospects for Critical Management Studies‟, Human Relations 53(1): 7-32. Mills, A. J., Simmons, T. and Mills, J. H.: 2005, Reading Organization Theory: A Critical Approach to the Study of Organizational Behavior and Structure (3rd Ed.). Toronto: Garamond Press.