Cultural (In)Sensitivity in International Management Textbooks: A Postcolonial Reading
(2009) American Academy of Management- Abstract
- The aim of this paper is to analyze, with a broadly postcolonial sensibility, the discourses on culture found in some of the international management books that: 1) especially claim to emphasize the cultural factor, and 2) claim to be ‘international’, supposedly appropriate for reading in all parts of the globe. We intend to show that very similar discursive patterns characterize the conceptualizations of culture found in these books. We especially emphasize three striking features, present in all five textbooks, which reveal how managers are meant to get to see the world once disciplined by these powerful discourses on culture: - a unanimous call for ‘cultural sensitivity’, which is presented as a skill that should be found in... (More)
- The aim of this paper is to analyze, with a broadly postcolonial sensibility, the discourses on culture found in some of the international management books that: 1) especially claim to emphasize the cultural factor, and 2) claim to be ‘international’, supposedly appropriate for reading in all parts of the globe. We intend to show that very similar discursive patterns characterize the conceptualizations of culture found in these books. We especially emphasize three striking features, present in all five textbooks, which reveal how managers are meant to get to see the world once disciplined by these powerful discourses on culture: - a unanimous call for ‘cultural sensitivity’, which is presented as a skill that should be found in international managers – but has insidious implications - a general tendency to essentialize national cultures, presenting them as static and homogeneous - a way of addressing a managerialistic purpose through a reductionism that subjugates culture to the needs of successful business We contend that the claimed book audiences - ‘international’ or even ‘global’ - are constructed upon the legacy of a colonial thinking in the sense that the knowledge is meant to be propagated through a one-way communication from the Western, mostly Anglo-Saxon, world (through standardized MBA education) to a rest of the world that is considered as economically and culturally peripheral. We conclude that the books contribute to producing both a guilt-free Western subjectivity and a collective cultural responsibility on the part of the people from so-called ‘developing countries’. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/1387704
- author
- Moulettes, Agneta LU and Fougère, Martin
- organization
- publishing date
- 2009
- type
- Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding
- publication status
- in press
- subject
- keywords
- Critical Management Studies, Culture, Postcolonialism, International Management books
- host publication
- [Host publication title missing]
- editor
- Banerjee, Bobby and Chio, Vanessa
- publisher
- Edward Elgar Publishing
- conference name
- American Academy of Management
- conference dates
- 2006-08-11 - 2006-08-12
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 4345688d-7772-4fec-87dc-eb4fe533fb8c (old id 1387704)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-04 12:18:59
- date last changed
- 2018-11-21 21:10:15
@inproceedings{4345688d-7772-4fec-87dc-eb4fe533fb8c,
abstract = {{The aim of this paper is to analyze, with a broadly postcolonial sensibility, the discourses on culture found in some of the international management books that: 1) especially claim to emphasize the cultural factor, and 2) claim to be ‘international’, supposedly appropriate for reading in all parts of the globe. We intend to show that very similar discursive patterns characterize the conceptualizations of culture found in these books. We especially emphasize three striking features, present in all five textbooks, which reveal how managers are meant to get to see the world once disciplined by these powerful discourses on culture: - a unanimous call for ‘cultural sensitivity’, which is presented as a skill that should be found in international managers – but has insidious implications - a general tendency to essentialize national cultures, presenting them as static and homogeneous - a way of addressing a managerialistic purpose through a reductionism that subjugates culture to the needs of successful business We contend that the claimed book audiences - ‘international’ or even ‘global’ - are constructed upon the legacy of a colonial thinking in the sense that the knowledge is meant to be propagated through a one-way communication from the Western, mostly Anglo-Saxon, world (through standardized MBA education) to a rest of the world that is considered as economically and culturally peripheral. We conclude that the books contribute to producing both a guilt-free Western subjectivity and a collective cultural responsibility on the part of the people from so-called ‘developing countries’.}},
author = {{Moulettes, Agneta and Fougère, Martin}},
booktitle = {{[Host publication title missing]}},
editor = {{Banerjee, Bobby and Chio, Vanessa}},
keywords = {{Critical Management Studies; Culture; Postcolonialism; International Management books}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{Edward Elgar Publishing}},
title = {{Cultural (In)Sensitivity in International Management Textbooks: A Postcolonial Reading}},
year = {{2009}},
}