Beyond Managism: Negotiated Narratives and Critical Management Education in Practice
| Date | 01 December 2001 |
| Author | Tony J. Watson |
| Published date | 01 December 2001 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.00216 |
Introduction
The purpose of this article is twofold. First, it
argues for a pragmatist conception of critical
management education and learning. Second, it
presents an account of such an approach in prac-
tice. This is offered as a possible way forward for
critical management studies and an alternative
to certain non-critical practices that currently
occur within management education. The paper is
written in the spirit of the reflective practitioner
(Schön, 1983) and its style will reflect its content.
It will use narrative, as well as critical reflection
and social science concepts, to put forward thoughts
that can be taken up in debates about management
education and learning practices. The paper is
intended to encourage the development of new
negotiated narratives about critical activities in
this field of endeavour.
The first task is to argue the case for a
pragmatist style of critical management studies.
At present there is no single conception of what
critical management study entails, and this makes
it necessary for anyone claiming to be operating
in such a spirit to explain his or her own position.
Following this, the basic principles of a negotiated-
narrative style of pragmatist critical management
study are outlined. As this is very much an emergent
notion of how practitioners’ own stories, academic
research ‘stories’ and academic theory might be
British Journal of Management, Vol. 12, 385–396 (2001)
© 2001 British Academy of Management
Beyond Managism:
Negotiated Narratives and
Critical Management Education
in Practice
Tony J. Watson
Nottingham Business School, The Nottingham Trent University, Burton Street, Nottingham NG1 4BU, UK
email: Tony.Watson@ntu.ac.uk
A pragmatist conception of critical management education and learning is first set out.
This accepts a degree of ‘functionality’ between management study and management
practice. It is, however, a non-managerialist and non-technicist functionality. The criterion
for judging critical management learning cannot be how well it reveals truths in any
absolute or foundationalist sense. The only possible criterion is how well, relative to
alternative types of learning, it informs the practices of people involved in managerial
situations (regardless of whether these are managers or not). Next, one way of applying
pragmatist critical management principles is outlined. This works through negotiated
narratives and stands as an alternative to orthodox management education approaches
– ones to which the critical concept of scholarism is applied. The outline is then developed
through an ethnographic style account of an instance of such a practice. Central to this
piece of teaching and learning practice is the critical concept of managism. Managist
discourse and its role in framing managerial thinking and practices is examined and
debated by the management class in the process of attempting collectively to make
sense of stories brought to the class by both the students and the teacher. The basic
‘story’ that the paper tells is rehearsed at the end in the form of a fairy tale. This is done
as an alternative to concluding or ‘closing’ the paper. The story of critical management
education and learning and what is done in its name continues to unfold.
To continue reading
Request your trial