Ideology and Demystification: Tom Peters and the Managerial (Sub-) Text—An Experiential Exploration of Critique and Empowerment in the Management Classroom
Restricted accessResearch articleFirst published online August, 1997
Ideology and Demystification: Tom Peters and the Managerial (Sub-) Text—An Experiential Exploration of Critique and Empowerment in the Management Classroom
Although critique has come to enjoy a well-recognized place in organizational research and scholarship, the typical business management classroom continues to be relatively underexposed to the critical program. This article represents an attempt to bring critical management scholarship closer to the business classroom. The article discusses issues such as the disciplinary status and relevance of criticism in management as well as the usefulness of the concept of ideology as a critical device. This is followed by the outlines of an experiential exercise (based on a Tom Peters video) followed by the outlines of an experiential exercise (based on a Tom Peters video) designed to engage business students in critical theorizing. Finally, some implications of the exercise are presented.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Althusser, L.
(1971). Lenin and philosophy and other essays. London: New Left Books.
2.
Alvesson, M.
(1985). A critical framework for organizational analysis. Organization Studies, 6, 117-138.
3.
Alvesson, M.
(1987). Organization theory and technocratic consciousness: Rationality, ideology and quality of work. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.
4.
Alvesson, M.
(1991). Organizational symbolism and ideology. Journal of Management, 28, 207-225.
5.
Alvesson, M.
, & Willmott, H. (Eds.). (1992). Critical management studies. London: Sage.
6.
Benson, J. K.
(1977). Organizations: A dialectical view. Administrative Science Quarterly, 22, 1-21.
7.
Benson, J. K.
(1983a). A dialectical method for the study of organizations. In G. Morgan (Ed.), Beyond method (pp. 331-346). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
8.
Benson, J. K.
(1983b). Paradigms and praxis in organizational analysis. In L. L. Cummings & B. Staw (Eds.), Research in organizational behavior (pp. 33-56). Greenwich, CT: JAI.
9.
Berger, P. L.
, & Luckmann, T. (1967). The social construction of reality. Garden City, NY: Anchor Books.
10.
Best, S.
, & Kellner, D. (1991). Postmodern theory: Critical interrogations. New York: Guilford.
11.
Beyer, J.
(1981). Ideologies, values, and decision-making in organizations. In P. Nystrom & W. Starbuck (Eds.), Handbook of organizational design (pp. 166-202). New York: Oxford University Press.
12.
Bhaskar, R.
(1983). Contradiction. In T. Bottomore (Ed.), A dictionary of Marxist thought (pp. 93-94). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
13.
Bottomore, T.
(Ed.). (1983). A dictionary of Marxist thought. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
14.
Burrell, G.
, & Morgan, G. (1979). Sociological paradigms and organizational analysis. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.
15.
Burris, B.
(1989). Technocracy and gender in the workplace. Social Problems, 36, 165-180.
16.
Cavanaugh, J. M.
, & Prasad, P. (1990). Beyond text: Making the implicit explicit in the OB classroom. Organizational Behavior Teaching Review, 14, 102-108.
17.
Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies
. (1977). On ideology. London: Hutchinson.
18.
Clegg, S.
(1979). The theory of power and organization. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
19.
Clegg, S.
, & Dunkereley, D. (1980). Organization, class and control. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
20.
Collinson, D.
(1988). Engineering humor. Organization Studies, 9, 181-199.
21.
Czarniawska-Joerges, B.
(1988). Ideological control in nonideological organizations. New York: Praeger.
22.
Deetz, S.
(1992). Democracy in an age of corporate colonization. Albany: State University of New York Press.
23.
Eagleton, T.
(1991). Ideology: An introduction. London: Verso.
24.
Etzioni, A.
(1988). The moral dimension: Toward a new economics. New York: Free Press.
25.
Fischer, F.
, & Sirianni, C. (Eds.). (1984). Critical studies in organization and bureaucracy. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
26.
Forester, J.
(1983). Critical theory and organizational analysis. In G. Morgan (Ed.), Beyond method (pp. 234-246). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
27.
Frost, P.
(1980). Toward a radical framework for practicing organization science. Academy of Management Review, 5, 501-508.
28.
Giddens, A.
(1976). Introduction. In M. Weber, The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism (pp. 1-12). New York: Scribner.
29.
Giddens, A.
(1979). Central problems in social theory. Berkeley: University of California Press.
30.
Held, D.
(1980). Introduction to critical theory. London: Hutchinson.
31.
Heydebrand, W.
(1977). Organizational contradictions in public bureaucracies. Sociological Quarterly, 18, 83-107.
32.
Heydebrand, W.
(1983). Organization and praxis. In G. Morgan (Ed.), Beyond method (pp. 306-320). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
33.
Hoy, D. C.
, & McCarthy, T. (1994). Critical theory. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
34.
Keeley, M.
(1983). Values in organization theory and management education. Academy of Management Review, 8, 376-386.
35.
Larrain, J.
(1979). The concept of ideology. London: Hutchinson.
36.
Larrain, J.
(1983). Marxism and ideology. Atlantic Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press.
37.
Marx, K.
, & Engels, F. (1970). The German ideology. New York: International Publishers.
38.
McCarthy, T.
(1978). The critical theory of Jurgen Habernas. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
39.
McLellan, D.
(1986). Ideology. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
40.
Meszaros, I.
(1983). Totality. In T. Bottomore (Ed.), A dictionary of Marxist thought (pp. 479-481). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
41.
Meszaros, I.
(1989). The power of ideology. New York: New York University Press.
42.
Mills, A.
(1988). Organization, gender and culture. Organization Studies, 9, 351-369.
43.
Mills, A.
, & Murgatroyd, S. (1991). Organizational rules. Milton Keynes, England: Open University Press.
44.
Mills, A.
, & Simmons, T. (1994). Reading organization theory: A critical approach. Toronto: Garamond.
45.
Mills, A.
, & Tancred, P. (Eds.). (1992). Gendering organizational analysis. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
46.
Morgan, G.
(Ed.). (1983). Beyond method. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
47.
Naisbitt, J.
(1990). Megatrends. New York: Warner Books.
48.
Nandy, A.
(1983). The intimate enemy. New Delhi, India: Oxford University Press.
49.
Nandy, A.
(1987). Traditions, tyranny and utopias. New Delhi, India: Oxford University Press.
50.
Nord, W.
(1974). The failure of current applied behavioral science: A Marxian perspective. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 10, 557-578.
51.
Parekh, B.
(1982). Marx's theory of ideology. London: Croom Helm.
52.
Parel, A.
(Ed.). (1983). Ideology, philosophy and politics. Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University Press for the Calgary Institute for the Humanities.
53.
Perrow, C.
(1986). Complex organizations: A critical essay. New York: Random House.
54.
Peters, T.
(Producer). (1989). Thriving on chaos (video, 3 parts). Video Production House Inc./KERA.
55.
Peters, T.
, & Waterman, R. (1982). In search of excellence. New York: Harper & Row.
56.
Petrovic, G.
(1983). Reification. In T. Bottomore (Ed.), A dictionary of Marxist thought (pp. 411-413). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
57.
Prasad, A. (1994). Institutional ideology and industry-level action: A macro analysis of corporate legitimation in the United States petroleum industry. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, School of Management, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
58.
Prasad, A.
, & Prasad, P. (1993). Reconceptualizing alienation in management inquiry: Critical organizational scholarship and workplace empowerment. Journal of Management Inquiry, 2, 169-183.
59.
Rosen, M.
(1984). Myth and reproduction. Journal of Management Studies, 21, 303-322.
60.
Rosen, M.
(1987). Critical administrative scholarship, praxis, and the academic workplace. Journal of Management, 13, 573-586.
61.
Rosen, M.
(1988). You asked for it: Christmas at the bosses' expense. Journal of Management Studies, 25, 463-480.
62.
Steffy, B.
, & Grimes, A. (1986). A critical theory of organization science. Academy of Management Review, 11, 322-336.
63.
Therborn, G.
(1980). The ideology of power and the power of ideology. London: Verso.
64.
Thompson, J. B.
(1984). Studies in the theory of ideology. Berkeley: University of California Press.
65.
Toffler, A.
(1990). The third wave. New York: William Morrow.
66.
Weber, M.
(1958). The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism (T. Parsons, Trans.). New York: Scribner.
67.
Weick, K.
(1979). The social psychology of organizing. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
68.
Weiss, R.
(1986). Managerial ideology and the social control of deviance in organizations. New York: Praeger.
