What is the role of management education amid ruination on a planetary scale? Quite significant, given that dominant forms of management learning fuel capitalism’s imperialist tendencies, with disproportionate consequences in the Global South. How, then, may we reflect on our positionality as educators at management institutions in India? We review how contemporary management education is infused with a desire for globally ranked excellence, even as it seeks “Indianness” as a form of recognition on the world stage. We focus on how this ranking fetish leaves academic debris in the form of predatory research practices, mimetic imperialist knowledge, socio-political irrelevance, and academic precarities. We consider the possibilities of being epistemically irreverent and indisciplined.
AbdallahC (2024) Against mastery: Epistemic decolonizing in the margins of the Business School. Management Learning. Epub ahead of print 18March. DOI: 10.1177/13505076241236341.
2.
AdlerNJHarzingAW (2009) When knowledge wins: Transcending the sense and nonsense of academic rankings. Academy of Management Learning & Education8(1): 72–95.
AliMG (2022) Detailed review of National Institute Ranking Framework (NIRF) India rankings including uncertainty and sensitivity. International Journal of Educational Research Review7 (Special Issue): 418–428.
5.
AndersonCElliottCCallahanJL (2021) Power, powerlessness, and journal ranking lists: The marginalization of fields of practice. Academy of Management Learning & Education20(1): 89–107.
6.
AndersonLThorpeRColemanC (2020) Reviewing Management Learning: The field and the journal. Management Learning51(1): 17–34.
7.
Australian Business Deans Council (2021) ABDC journal quality list: Review of frequency, methodology, and scope. Consultation Paper, Australian Business Deans Council, Deakin, ACT, Australia, June.
8.
BarrosAAlcadipaniR (2023) Decolonizing journals in management and organizations? Epistemological colonial encounters and the double translation. Management Learning54(4): 576–586.
BerkowitzHDelacourH (2022) Opening research data: What does it mean for social sciences?M@n@gement25(4): 1–15.
11.
BermanEP (2011) Creating the Market University: How Academic Science Became an Economic Engine. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
12.
BiagioliMKenneyMMartinBR, et al. (2019) Academic misconduct, misrepresentation and gaming: A reassessment. Research Policy48(2): 401–413.
13.
BrankovicJRingelLWerronT (2018) How rankings produce competition: The case of global university rankings. Zeitschrift für Soziologie47(4): 270–288.
14.
BrownW (2019) In the Ruins of Neoliberalism: The Rise of Antidemocratic Politics in the West. New York: Columbia University Press.
15.
ChatzidakisAKerriganFVarmanR (2023) Academic integrity, quality scholarship, and critical perspectives cannot be suppressed. Marketing Theory23(4): 557–560.
16.
CheppV (2015) Black feminist theory and the politics of irreverence: The case of women’s rap. Feminist Theory16(2): 207–226.
17.
ColomboLMoserCMuehlfeldK, et al. (2024) Sowing the seeds of change: Calling for a social–ecological approach to Management Learning and Education. Academy of Management Learning & Education23(2): 207–213.
18.
CooperSMajumdarDG (2024) (De)humanization in the business school: Critical reflection on doctoral experiences. Management Learning55(1): 81–103.
19.
DhimanAGoelASharmaM (2024) Evolving landscape of management education and employability: Challenges and contradictions. In: BabuRThakurM (eds) Managing India. New Delhi, India: Routledge, 136–158.
20.
DobuschLHeimstädtM (2019) Predatory publishing in management research: A call for open peer review. Management Learning50(5): 607–619.
21.
DureposGMacleanMAlcadipaniR, et al. (2020) Historical reflections at the intersection of past and future: Celebrating 50 years of Management Learning. Management Learning51(1): 3–16.
22.
ElliottCRobinsonS (2012) MBA imaginaries: Projections of internationalization. Management Learning43(2): 157–181.
23.
FlemingP (2021) Dark Academia: How Universities Die. London: Pluto.
24.
FotakiMPrasadA (2015) Questioning neoliberal capitalism and economic inequality in business schools. Academy of Management Learning & Education14(4): 556–575.
25.
FraserN (2022) Cannibal Capitalism: How Our System Is Devouring Democracy, Care, and the Planet and What We Can Do about It. New York: Verso Books.
26.
GaddE (2021) Mis-Measuring Our Universities: Why global university rankings don’t add up. Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics6:680023. doi: 10.3389/frma.2021.680023
27.
GirouxHA (2002) Neoliberalism, corporate culture, and the promise of higher education: The university as a democratic public sphere. Harvard Educational Review72(4): 425–464.
28.
GraeberD (2019) Bullshit Jobs: A Theory. London: Simon and Schuster.
29.
GreyC (2009) License to think. Management Learning40(4): 353–356.
30.
GrolleauGMeunierL (2024) Legitimacy through research, not rankings: A provocation and proposal for business schools. Academy of Management Learning & Education23(2): 325–342.
31.
GuptaPNairVG (2019) From “research in management” to “management of research”: Changing nature of doctoral programme at Indian management schools. Decision46(2): 169–175.
32.
HabiburahmanAlamgirF (2024) Organizing our situated solidarity against misrecognition: The de facto stateless Rohingyas and the political economy of slow and ongoing genocide. Organization31(8): 1281–1297.
33.
HamannRLuizJRamaboaK, et al. (2020) Neither colony nor enclave: Calling for dialogical contextualism in management and organization studies. Organization Theory1(1): 1–21.
34.
JagannathanSPackirisamyP (2019) Love in the midst of precariousness: Lamenting the trappings of labour in de-intellectualized worlds. Decision46(2): 139–150.
35.
JammulamadakaN (2017) A postcolonial critique of India’s management education scene. In: ThakurM (ed.) Management Education in India: Perspectives and Practices. New Delhi, India: Springer, 23–42.
JonesDRVisserMStokesP, et al. (2020) The performative university: “Targets,” ‘terror’ and “taking back freedom” in academia. Management Learning51(4): 363–377.
39.
KalraNSeetharamanAMadduletyK, et al. (2022) Evolving trends in scholarly publishing and impact on the monotony of predators. GLIMS Journal of Management Review and Transformation3(1): 1–13.
40.
KalyaniK (2024) Music as an anti-caste counterpublic: Notes from North India. Social Change54(2): 229–242.
41.
KhatriNOjhaAKBudhwarP, et al. (2012) Management research in India: Current state and future directions. IIMB Management Review24(2): 104–115.
KothiyalNBellEClarkeCA (2018) Moving beyond mimicry: Developing hybrid spaces in Indian business schools. Academy of Management Learning & Education17(2): 137–154.
44.
KravetsOVarmanR (2022) Introduction to special issue: Hierarchies of knowledge in marketing theory. Marketing Theory22(2): 127–133.
45.
KumarABapujiHMirR (2021) “Educate, agitate, organize”: Inequality and ethics in the writings of Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar. Journal of Business Ethics178(32): 1–14.
46.
KumarRKambleR (2021) Feminism from the margins: How women are contesting the “othering” of Muslims through arts-based resistance?Gender, Work & Organization29(4): 1360–1374.
47.
LacerdaDSde CássiaTSantosR (2023) The role of social network platforms for discursive legitimation: Unveiling neoliberalism behind the discourse on public universities. M@n@gement26(4): 52–67.
48.
LancioneMCleggSR (2015) The lightness of management learning. Management Learning46(3): 280–298.
LiuH (2022) How we learn whiteness: Disciplining and resisting management knowledge. Management Learning53(5): 776–796.
51.
McLeodASavageASimkinMG (2018) The ethics of predatory journals. Journal of Business Ethics153(1): 121–131.
52.
MenonN (2019) The university as utopia: Critical thinking and the work of social transformation. Critical Times2(1): 85–105.
53.
MandalakiEvan AmsterdamNDaouE (2022) The meshwork of teaching against the grain: Embodiment, affect and art in management education. Culture and Organization28(3–4): 245–262.
54.
MingersJWillmottH (2013) Taylorizing business school research: On the “one best way” performative effects of journal ranking lists. Human Relations66(8): 1051–1073.
55.
Ministry of Education (2017) India Rankings 2017. New Delhi, India: Government of India.
56.
Ministry of Education (2024) India Rankings 2024. New Delhi, India: Government of India.
57.
Ministry of Human Resource Development (2008) Report of IIM Review Committee. New Delhi, India: Government of India.
58.
Ministry of Human Resource Development (2013) Constitution of a Committee to Drive Up the Research Performance of Academic Institutions. New Delhi, India: Government of India.
59.
MoodieD (2019) B-school religion: Hindu theology in the neo-liberal cityscape. South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies42(6): 1046–1061.
60.
MuzanenhamoPChowdhuryR (2023) Epistemic injustice and hegemonic ordeal in management and organization studies: Advancing Black scholarship. Human Relations76(1): 3–26.
61.
NagarR (2019) Hungry Translations: Relearning the World through Radical Vulnerabilities. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
62.
OliverC (2010) The goals of scholarship. Journal of Management Inquiry19(1): 26–32.
63.
OrdorikaILloydM (2015) International rankings and the contest for university hegemony. Journal of Education Policy30(3): 385–405.
PrakashB (2019) Cultural Labour: Conceptualizing the “Folk Performance” in India. New Delhi, India: Oxford University Press.
66.
PrasadAŚliwaM (2022) Towards an aspirational future: Cultivating ontological empathy within the ethos of Management Learning. Management Learning53(2): 139–145.
67.
PuehringerSRathJGriesebnerT (2021) The political economy of academic publishing: On the commodification of a public good. PLoS ONE16(6): e0253226.
SpivakGC (1999) A Critique of Postcolonial Reason. Boston, MA: Harvard University Press.
73.
SrinivasN (2012) Epistemic and performative quests for authentic management in India. Organization19(2): 145–158.
74.
StarkeyKTempestSCinqueS (2019) Management education and the theatre of the absurd. Management Learning50(5): 591–606.
75.
StolerAL (Ed) (2013) Imperial Debris: On Ruins and Ruination. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
76.
SundarN (2018) Academic freedom and Indian universities. Economic and Political Weekly53(24): 48–57.
77.
TadajewskiM (2016) Academic labour, journal ranking lists and the politics of knowledge production in marketing. Journal of Marketing Management32(1–2): 1–18.
78.
ThorpH (2023) Revolt against educational rankings. Science379(6631): 419.
79.
TourishD (2020) The triumph of nonsense in management studies. Academy of Management Learning & Education19(1): 99–109.
TumbeC (2020) The rise of the technological manager in India in the 1960s: The role of the Indian Institutes of Management. Management & Organizational History15(2): 192–206.
82.
TumbeC (2021) Business school archives: The Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) archives. Academy of Management Learning & Education20(3): 485–487.
83.
VakkayilJChatterjeeD (2017) Globalization routes: The pursuit of conformity and distinctiveness by top business schools in India. Management Learning48(3): 328–344.
84.
VarmanR (2014) Marketing thought in India: Challenges of hegemony and inclusivity. Vikalpa39(2): 1–6.
85.
VarmanRSahaBSkålénP (2011) Market subjectivity and neoliberal governmentality in higher education. Journal of Marketing Management27(11–12): 1163–1185.
86.
VenkateswaranRTOjhaAK (2017) Strategic management research on emerging economies: Cultural imperialism in universalizing research paradigms. Critical Perspectives on International business13(3), 204–225
VijayDNairVG (2022) In the name of merit: Ethical violence and inequality at a business school. Journal of Business Ethics179(2): 315–337.
89.
VijayDVarmanR (2018) Introduction: Undoing boundaries. In: VijayDVarmanR (eds) Alternative Organisations in India: Undoing Boundaries. New Delhi, India: Cambridge University Press, 1–25.
90.
VijayDGuptaSKaushivaP (2021) With the margins: Writing subaltern resistance and social transformation. Gender, Work & Organization28(2): 481–496.
91.
WeatherallR (2019) Writing the doctoral thesis differently. Management Learning50(1): 100–113.
92.
WedlinL (2011) Going global: Rankings as rhetorical devices to construct an international field of management education. Management Learning42(2): 199–218.
93.
WoodF (2021) The cult of the quantifiable: The fetishism of numbers in higher education. Prometheus37: 8–26.
94.
ZawadzkiMJensenT (2020) Bullying and the neoliberal university: A co-authored autoethnography. Management Learning51(4): 398–413.
95.
ZulfiqarGPrasadA (2021) Challenging social inequality in the global South: Class, privilege, and consciousness-raising through critical management education. Academy of Management Learning & Education20(2): 156–181.
