‘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, the authors investigate how organizational paternalism, often considered a traditional and rather archaic management style, is evoked by a culture management program in order to increase control.
Abstract: This article investigates how organizational paternalism, often considered a traditional and rather archaic management style, is evoked by a culture management programme in order to increase control. Most research assumes that paternalism does successfully capture the subjective commitments of employees because they appreciate the ‘caring’ and ‘nurturing’ environment it engenders. Lacking in this literature is a consideration of how and why employees might resist organizational paternalism. An empirical study is presented that suggests some workers resist paternalism because it casts them as irrational children and undermines their dignity. The structure of this resistance is explored in detail and the relationships between paternalism, culture management and HRM examined.
88 citations
"‘World-class’ fantasies: A neocolon..." refers background in this paper
...We argue that this takes place particularly through the mobilization of positive illusions that aim to construct a sense of empowerment through ‘the rhetoric of equality, care, and succor’ (Fleming, 2005: 1484)....
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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.
82 citations
TL;DR: This paper analyzed the effects of job loss on the occupational identities of a group of United States pilots, laid off (or furloughed) twice by their employer in the decade following 9/11.
Abstract: This article analyses the effects of job loss on the occupational identities of a group of United States pilots, laid off (or �furloughed�) twice by their employer in the decade following 9/11. Using a narrative methodology, the paper examines how the childhood dream of flying, referred to as the Phaethon dream, serves as an identity anchor that sustained their occupational identities. When the circumstances of the aviation industry (restructuring, outsourcing, and downsizing) led to extensive lay-offs, this identity anchor functioned in two contrasting ways. Some pilots moved on to retrain and start new careers, without abandoning their occupational identities or relinquishing the dream of flying. Another group of pilots, however, were stuck in occupational limbo waiting to be recalled by their employer, unwilling to forsake this dream and refusing to contemplate a move that would decisively take them out of their pilot seats. The paper's contribution lies in theorizing how a dream originating in childhood, linked to a long-standing archetype of flying and subsequently hardened into a shared occupational fantasy, acts as an identity anchor and how this shapes responses to the trauma of job loss. The paper concludes by linking the Phaethon dream to its mythological counterpart in order to highlight its enduring, shared, and unconscious character.
82 citations
"‘World-class’ fantasies: A neocolon..." refers background in this paper
...…differences and the fantasy of a coherent object compensating unsuccessful identification Our second contribution elaborates the recent literature on grandiose self-constructions in organizations (e.g., Alvesson, 2013; Alvesson and Gabriel, 2016; Fraher and Gabriel, 2014; Lok and Willmott, 2014)....
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...Our second contribution elaborates the recent literature on grandiose self-constructions in organizations (e.g., Alvesson, 2013; Alvesson and Gabriel, 2016; Fraher and Gabriel, 2014; Lok and Willmott, 2014)....
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...…used as a reference point for the quality of an education and such discourse is central to universities’ branding attempts and competition in global education markets, it has been argued that this discourse merely shifts the focus from substance to image (Alvesson, 2013; Fraher and Gabriel, 2014)....
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...Second, we contribute to the recent literature on grandiose constructions in organizations (e.g. Alvesson, 2013; Alvesson and Gabriel, 2016; Fraher and Gabriel, 2014) from a postcolonial perspective by discussing how such constructions are used to gain and maintain power....
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...Although terms such as world-class, top-ranked and/or excellence are used as a reference point for the quality of an education and such discourse is central to universities’ branding attempts and competition in global education markets, it has been argued that this discourse merely shifts the focus from substance to image (Alvesson, 2013; Fraher and Gabriel, 2014)....
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TL;DR: This article argued that the intentional Americanization of Brazilian management is an intentional process that resembles colonialism, and analyzed the establishment and growth of what is one of the largest management academies in the world, showing how it was created under colonial logics.
Abstract: – This paper aims to discuss, from a post‐colonial perspective, the context and process of the Americanization of Brazilian management., – The paper first briefly discusses post‐colonialism and “Latin‐America”. After this, it analyzes the content of US management and its prevalence in the world. The paper then presents the process of the intentional Americanization of Brazil, in order to contextualize this process in management. It follows an essayist style., – The paper argues that the Americanization of Brazilian management is an intentional process that resembles colonialism., – The paper's contribution is to analyze the establishment and growth of what is one of the largest management academies in the world, showing how it was created under colonial logics. This case may also suggest how these logics have a wider influence on how management knowledge is produced and reproduced in developing economies.
79 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examined the process of diffusion of Western management ideas through a consumption perspective which treated the foreign MBA as a standardized commodity (much like the foreign car) with particular use, symbolic and exchange values.
Abstract: Increasing academic attention is being given to the role of management gurus, consultants, managers and academic researchers in the international diffusion of Western management ideas. This is part of wider debates on knowledge, power and globalization. Relatively little attention has been paid to the mechanisms through which diffusion takes place and, in particular, the role of academics as lecturers and business schools as disseminators of management knowledge at home and abroad. This paper draws on the authors’ personal experiences and perceptions of teaching on an Executive MBA programme in Malaysia and those of their students.
Management education is growing rapidly in many regions of the world and has become highly commodified and commercialized, with Western universities competing in emerging markets for potentially lucrative local opportunities and foreign students or ‘consumers’. Accordingly, the process of diffusion of Western management ideas is examined through a consumption perspective which treats the foreign MBA as a standardized commodity (much like the foreign car) with particular use, symbolic and exchange values. However, the limits of the consumption perspective in terms of both consumer sovereignty and subordination are also established in revealing deeper and more dynamic relations of power. Moreover, it is argued that while there are parallels with domestic consumption of MBAs, the teaching of MBAs in Malaysia generates added ambivalence among learners founded on global–local and development–imperialism dynamics and tensions.
77 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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