International and Cross-Cultural Management Studies: A Postcolonial Reading

International and cross-cultural management has received little critical attention to date. This book draws upon ideas from postcolonial theory to present a critique of these academic fields and the commitments and orthodoxies to which they currently adhere. The authors argue that these fields rely unreflexively on modes on knowing, theorizing and research that are deeply embedded in Western and Eurocentric discourse. Furthermore, they suggest that scholars in these areas have largely failed to address the role of their intellectual activities in the maintenance of a Western intellectual hegemony and propagation of asymmetries, inequalities and structures of domination. In this respect, international and cross-cultural management is resonant with historical as well as contemporary conditions of colonialism, neocolonialism and cultural imperialism. The book offers an exploration of alternative theoretical, ethical and methodological commitments and institutional arrangements through which these fields could be reconfigured.