TY - JOUR
T1 - From binarism back to hybridity
T2 - A postcolonial reading of management and organization studies
AU - Frenkel, Michal
AU - Shenhav, Yehouda
PY - 2006/6
Y1 - 2006/6
N2 - Drawing on recent theoretical developments in postcolonial research, we examine the effect of the colonial encounter on the canonization of management and organization studies (MOS) as well as the field's epistemological boundaries. In contrast to Orientalism, which is founded on a neat, binary, division between West and East, we offer (following Latour) a hybrid epistemology, which recognizes that the history of management and organizations should include the fusion between the colonizer and the colonized and their mutual effects on each other. Thus, while we discern the Orientalist assumptions embedded in the writing of management scholars, we also show that certain texts and practices that emerged during the colonial, as well as neo-colonial, encounter were excluded from the field, resulting in a 'purified canon'. We conclude by arguing that hybridization between the metropole and colonies, and between western and non-western organizational entities, needs to be acknowledged by students of cultural diversity, and of critical management.
AB - Drawing on recent theoretical developments in postcolonial research, we examine the effect of the colonial encounter on the canonization of management and organization studies (MOS) as well as the field's epistemological boundaries. In contrast to Orientalism, which is founded on a neat, binary, division between West and East, we offer (following Latour) a hybrid epistemology, which recognizes that the history of management and organizations should include the fusion between the colonizer and the colonized and their mutual effects on each other. Thus, while we discern the Orientalist assumptions embedded in the writing of management scholars, we also show that certain texts and practices that emerged during the colonial, as well as neo-colonial, encounter were excluded from the field, resulting in a 'purified canon'. We conclude by arguing that hybridization between the metropole and colonies, and between western and non-western organizational entities, needs to be acknowledged by students of cultural diversity, and of critical management.
KW - Critical management studies
KW - Culture
KW - Hybridity
KW - Imperial bureaucracy
KW - Management and organization studies
KW - Orientalism
KW - Postcolonialism
KW - Purification
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33745040020&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0170840606064086
DO - 10.1177/0170840606064086
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AN - SCOPUS:33745040020
SN - 0170-8406
VL - 27
SP - 855
EP - 876
JO - Organization Studies
JF - Organization Studies
IS - 6
ER -