Critical management studies are a set of works that draw on critical theory to formulate different ways of understanding the livelihoods and daily functioning of organizations.

In this article we will see in more detail what critical management studies are, where they come from and what some of their main proposals are.

What are Critical Management Studies?

Critical Management Studies are a group of works that apply critical theory to the analysis and functioning of organizations.

That is, it is a series of studies on management, organizations and work that, from a critical perspective, address social issues of relevance to these areas , such as gender, power, identity, etc. (Baleriola, 2017). Some of their main objectives are, in broad terms, the following:

  • To offer an alternative vision to the traditional proposal in management studies.
  • Use methodologies other than quantitative and experimental analysis.
  • To study power relations and ideology within organizations.
  • To study aspects of communication between the people who make up an organisation, as well as the values involved.

We will see below where critical management studies come from and what some of their contributions to the management of organizations are.

Critical theory applied to management

Critical theory is a current of philosophy and social sciences that was born in the middle of the 20th century. It establishes a break with traditional theory , based on a project of scientific objectivity and typical of natural sciences; since, beyond generating explanations or descriptions of the phenomena it studies, critical theory intends to value them under a political component omitted in traditional theory.

This theory considers that all objects of research, and all those who research, have been socially constructed , that is, they are found in a particular vision of the world that corresponds to a specific historical and cultural context. Consequently, people and social sciences have a transformative potential that critical theory addresses in terms of power and domination especially.

This opened up crises, debates, objects and methodologies of research both in the social sciences and in other fields, such as the world of work and organizations. Specifically, the opportunity was provided to problematize some of the foundations of traditional business management, as well as its consequences on the daily activities of those who make up the organizations.

Three fundamental elements

Baleriola (2017) tells us that the contributions of critical theory to business management , and the proposals that derive from this, can be summarized in the following points:

1. Criticism of technical and self-limiting positions

They call into question the scientific foundations and methodologies that had been transferred to the activity and management of the organizations, as they ended up reducing explanations of their operation to variables or categories related to each other by numbers. These were far from what really happens within organisations , that is, the existence of more variables was not considered, or the capacity of people to interpret what others say and do, etc.

From here new methodologies are proposed for the analysis of organizations .

2. Critique of the power and ideology of traditional theory

Related to this, critical management studies analyse the impact of language , implicit values and actions on interpersonal relationships, organisational culture , goals and objectives, etc. This was either omitted by traditional theory or was considered as a secondary element.

3. The pursuit of ideals

It is about thinking and building other modes of action, that is, rethinking what is taken for granted or has become naturalised within organisations . From there on, to look for alternatives, in this case critical and with approaches on ethics.

Methodology and ethical practice

Critical management studies are intended to conduct in-depth analyses of the phenomena they study. Therefore, they are based on a primarily qualitative methodology, which supports a possibility of critical choice. In other words, critical management studies make an explicitly political use of the study and analysis of the phenomena that occur in organizations (Baleriola, 2017).

Some of the techniques and methodological foundations used by critical management studies are ethnography and discourse analysis, as well as the possibility of transformation at the very moment of investigating the phenomenon.

In relation to this, the researcher positions himself as an empowerment tool , and finally, they analyze the ethical commitment in the organizational activity, which implies understanding the tensions between the demands of the organization itself and its members.

In the same vein, critical management studies are critical of the traditional postulates of corporate social responsibility, which generally insist on individual responsibility, and have a special concern for the image they project in their immediate context.

They also problematize reductionist biases about ethical practice, for example, the idea that ethical responsibility is an exercise that only applies to the highest levels of the organization (Tirado and Gálvez, 2017). They seek, on the contrary to make visible that individuals are actively and daily constituted as moral subjects , which implies analyzing ethics not as a universal reality, but in the concrete context in which this occurs.

Bibliographic references:

  • Baleriola, E. (2017). Critical Management Studies: an introduction. In Tirado, F., Baleriola, E. and Gálvez, A. Critical Management Studies. Towards more ethical and sustainable organizations. Editorial UOC: Barcelona.
  • Tirado, F. and Gálvez, A. (2017). Essential problems in Critical Management Studies. In Tirado, F., Baleriola, E. and Gálvez, A. Critical Management Studies. Towards more ethical and sustainable organizations. Editorial UOC: Barcelona.