‘World-class’ fantasies: A neocolonial analysis of international branch campuses:
TL;DR: The authors explored how the "world-class" discourse as an ideology and a fantasy structures neocolonial relations in intern... and built on postcolonial studies and discourse analytical research exploring how the 'worldclass' discourse as ideology and fantasy structure neocolony relations in the US.
Abstract: In this article, we build on postcolonial studies and discourse analytical research exploring how the ‘world-class’ discourse as an ideology and a fantasy structures neocolonial relations in intern...
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors highlight the importance of adopting a contextualized approach to hybridization processes that, first, takes into account the historical and cultural contexts from which hybridity emerges and, second, helps to identify the elements that change as well as those that persist when western management practices are imported into developing countries.
Abstract: Drawing on postcolonial studies of management, this article highlights the importance of adopting a contextualized approach to hybridization processes that, first, takes into account the importance of the historical and cultural contexts from which hybridity emerges and, second, helps to identify the elements that change as well as those that persist when western management practices are imported into developing countries. Using a discursive analysis, this article shows the ambivalent nature of the accounts given by managers (trained in western traditions) of the Tunisian company Poulina as they explain how they modernized their company through the implementation of a US management model. The managers' ambivalence takes on two distinct forms. First, while they seem to have internalized the rhetoric of modernization in insisting on how they used the US management model to overcome the 'dysfunctional' family-based organizational system, they simultaneously express resistance by detaching themselves from the French colonial organizational model. Second, when they describe the implementation of the US management practices and how workers resisted them, it seems that they have implicitly negotiated and reinterpreted these practices via a local cultural framework of meaning. Based on these findings, I argue that hybridity is best understood as an interweaving of two elements - the transformation of practices and cultural continuity - in which identity construction, local power dynamics and cultural frameworks of meaning jointly shape the hybridization process of management practices.
89 citations
40 citations
TL;DR: In this article, a special issue (SI) editorial contributes to ongoing efforts worldwide to decolonise management and organisational knowledge (MOK), and a robust pluriversal discussion on the how and why of decolonization is presented.
Abstract: This special issue (SI) editorial contributes to ongoing efforts worldwide to decolonise management and organisational knowledge (MOK). A robust pluriversal discussion on the how and why of decolon...
27 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors investigated how higher education institutions in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) position themselves and compete with one another, and used hierarchical cluster analysis to identify strategic groups and institutional competitive strategies in the UAE higher education market.
Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to discover how higher education institutions may segment the market in a competitive higher education hub and to assess the usefulness of strategic group analysis as an analytical technique for market and competitor analysis. As a case example of a competitive higher education market, this research investigates how higher education institutions in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) position themselves and compete with one another.,The research relied mainly on secondary data, which were obtained from the websites of institutions and regulatory bodies. Then, hierarchical cluster analysis was used to identify strategic groups and institutional competitive strategies in the UAE higher education market. A panel of experts helped interpret and explain the cluster results.,Eight distinct institutional clusters were identified, which include public- and privately-owned institutions, as well as elite and specialist institutions. Institution and programme accreditation were found to be particularly important in the UAE market. The institutions in each group appear to operate in a particular market segment, targeting students who have similar needs and wants, and who often share similar demographic features.,It is concluded that strategic group analysis may help institutions to evaluate potential markets, select target segments and develop competitive strategies. In the UAE market context, the results demonstrate how institutions may position themselves to create strong and distinctive identities. The results of the research may be of interest to higher education institutions that operate in competitive markets, and particularly those that want to evaluate foreign markets.,This is believed to be the first study to use a strategic group approach for analysing competitors in a higher education hub.
18 citations
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TL;DR: In this paper, a special issue on management and organizational knowledge (MOK) as it is practiced and constructed in the global south is presented, with a focus on the work of organizational scholars working outside the West who rarely appear on the radar of the most prestigious scholarly journals.
Abstract: The rationale for this special issue has been to open a space for reflection about management and organizational knowledge (MOK) as it is practiced and constructed in the global South. Organizational scholars working outside the West rarely appear on the radar of the most prestigious scholarly journals of the field, the institutionalized ‘core’ of the management and organizational science. However, there is life beyond Northern academia, both in terms of management theoretical concepts and in terms of organizational practices. This special issue aims to make these voices heard, without any particular commitments to Western theoretical framework or approaches, insofar as the contributions have a critical lens, given the nature of the journal Organization. A detailed mapping of the nature and extent of MOK in the Global South falls clearly beyond the scope of this introduction, but before discussing the particular articles selected and which insights about this special issue topic they generate, we will make a very succinct presentation of the problems involved in the production and diffusion of Southern MOK. Before doing this, we will characterize what we understand as Global South and how this terminology has emerged.
147 citations
"‘World-class’ fantasies: A neocolon..." refers background in this paper
...…should be heard in order to disrupt neocolonialist practices and bring the periphery to the centre of academic discussion and theory formation (e.g. Alcadipani et al., 2012; Alcadipani and Faria, 2014; Ibarra-Colado, 2006; Mignolo, 2011; Mir and Mir, 2013; Özkazanç-Pan, 2008; Westwood et al.,…...
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TL;DR: The authors discuss the implications of postcolonial studies for examining and expanding the study of international management, and summarize key theoretical concepts emanating from three seminal postcolonial scholars, namely, Said, Spivak, and Bhabha.
Abstract: I discuss the implications of postcolonial studies for examining and expanding the study of international management. First, I outline various debates and approaches within the postcolonial field. Following this, I summarize key theoretical concepts emanating from three seminal postcolonial scholars—Said, Spivak, and Bhabha— whose works have helped define the field. I rely on each of their lenses—Orientalism, gendered postcolonial subject, and hybridity, respectively—to discuss possibilities and new directions for international management research.
140 citations
"‘World-class’ fantasies: A neocolon..." refers background in this paper
...…be heard in order to disrupt neocolonialist practices and bring the periphery to the centre of academic discussion and theory formation (e.g. Alcadipani et al., 2012; Alcadipani and Faria, 2014; Ibarra-Colado, 2006; Mignolo, 2011; Mir and Mir, 2013; Özkazanç-Pan, 2008; Westwood et al., 2014)....
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...Accordingly, non-Western viewpoints should be heard in order to disrupt neocolonialist practices and bring the periphery to the centre of academic discussion and theory formation (e.g. Alcadipani et al., 2012; Alcadipani and Faria, 2014; Ibarra-Colado, 2006; Mignolo, 2011; Mir and Mir, 2013; Özkazanç-Pan, 2008; Westwood et al., 2014)....
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors apply the so-called strategic trajectory model to the case of Dubai, and they reduce their focus to the management side, which is too narrow to provide an explanation of the overall development process in Dubai.
Abstract: The developmental process as it unfolds in Dubai has hardly been analyzed by academics. Most current knowledge about the country originates from media coverage, especially from news magazines and business literature. Recently a number of social science based but historically oriented academic publications have appeared. Only one study, however, has seriously sought to place Dubai in a broader developmental framework: Sampler and Eigner's From Sand to Silicon, published in 2003. Yet, by applying the so-called strategic trajectory model to the case of Dubai, they reduce their focus to the management side. Their aim is too narrow to provide an explanation of the overall development process in Dubai.
124 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present a short note on postcolonialism as a field of critical inquiry in the business management field, and enable the guest editors to introduce the contents of a special issue entitled “Critical reflections on management and organization: a postcolonial perspective”.
Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present a short note on postcolonialism as a field of critical inquiry in the business management field, and enable the guest editors to introduce the contents of a special issue entitled “Critical reflections on management and organization: a postcolonial perspective”.Design/methodology/approach – The paper states that postcolonial theory seeks to critique and analyze the complex and multifaceted dynamics of modern Western colonialism and to develop an in‐depth understanding of the ongoing significance of the colonial encounter for people's lives both in the West and the non‐West.Findings – The paper finds that modern western colonialism – a phenomenon with a history of roughly 500 years and a geographical reach that at one point spanned approximately 90 percent of the entire earth – is an episode of particular significance in human history.Originality/value – The paper shows that the special issue contents reflect different aspects of contemporary issues in post...
122 citations
"‘World-class’ fantasies: A neocolon..." refers background in this paper
...This notion of Western superiority as well as the transfer of Western theories has been under critical scrutiny (Banerjee and Prasad, 2008; Elliott and Grigorenko, 2007; Frenkel, 2008; Murphy and Zhu, 2012; Nguyen et al., 2009; Sturdy and Gabriel, 2000; Taji, 2004)....
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TL;DR: In this article, a longitudinal critical discourse analysis of a university merger of three universities in Finland is presented, where the qualitative empirical material comprises university communications materials and media texts, and the study illustrates dynamics of reputation-building in university merger and highlights the contradictions and controversies involved.
Abstract: Purpose – This study of a university merger seeks to shed new light on reputation‐building, which has remained unexplored in the mergers and acquisitions (M&As) literature. It aims to study how key actors seek to build the reputation of the new university and how issues related to reputation become (re)constructed in different forums and vis‐a‐vis different stakeholders.Design/methodology/approach – The paper offers a longitudinal critical discourse analysis of a merger of three universities in Finland. The qualitative empirical material comprises university communications materials and media texts.Findings – The study illustrates dynamics of reputation‐building in a university merger. It shows how the need to become an innovative “world‐class” university acts as an imaginary incentive, and predictions of an inevitable future are used to legitimize radical actions. The study also highlights the contradictions and controversies involved.Originality/value – The study complements extant M&As literature by of...
114 citations
"‘World-class’ fantasies: A neocolon..." refers background in this paper
...However, the mobilization of the discourse does not necessarily say anything about the quality of the institution or its offerings, but builds on imaginaries (Aula and Tienari, 2011; Lane, 2011)....
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