Contesting Hegemony through Genealogy

Abstract

Much of organizational theory emanating from the field of management studies has been predicated on the Westocentric assumption of universality and has, therefore, been bereft of cultural contextualization. This is problematic insofar as such theories negate the lived realities of many non-Western peoples, particularly those who constitute members of systematically oppressed classes. With the aim to subvert the ethnocentric foundation upon which organizational studies has been traditionally grounded, this article illuminates the utility of Foucauldian thought on cross-cultural management research. It contends that Foucault's concept of genealogy can potentially serve as a theoretical purveyor from which to destabilize the myth of universality in organizational studies, and to contest the epistemological hegemony that has been afforded to Western organizational analysis. Finally, it concludes that the conscientious deployment of Foucauldian genealogy can discursively open up a multiplicity of perspectives in understanding cross-cultural organizational life. key words • cross-cultural research • ethnocentric bias • Foucault • organization studies CCM International Journal of Cross Cultural ManagementBy comparison, then, and in contrast to the various projects which aim to inscribe knowledges in the hierarchical order of power associated with science, a genealogy should be seen as a kind of attempt to emancipate historical knowledges from [the subjugated] subject, to render them, that is, capable of opposition and of struggle against the coercion of a theoretical, unitary, formal and scientific discourse. (Foucault, 1980: 85)

Cross-Cultural Management Studies: State of the Field in the Four Research Paradigms*

“…Methods of investigation favored by the postmodern and critical researchers constitute a third distinct area of contribution. Prasad (2009) demonstrates how the use of genealogy in cross-cultural management can modify the claims of culture theories and their study of notions such as power. Deconstruction (see Foug ere and Moulettes 2007) also offers an incisive method for the investigation of implicit meanings and power structures in texts and can be used, for example, in the study of cultural critical incidents (Romani, Primecz, and Bell 2014).…”

An auto-ethnographic narrative of corporate intercultural training: Insights from the genealogical reordering of the material

“…At present, there are only two academic texts that put forward a genealogical investigation of CCM. Prasad (2009) makes the point that presumably 'universal' CCM knowledge is actually rooted in a specific Western history. He shows how genealogy can be a means of moving beyond the Westocentric nature of the CCM knowledge-base.…”

Kritikai interkulturális menedzsment

“…A kutatások közül Prasad (2009) például azt mutatja be szisztematikusan a foucault-i genealógiai szemüvegen keresztül, hogy a gyarmatosítás hogyan szolgálta a gyarmatok felszabadulása után és szolgálja jelenleg is a Nyugat hegemonikus törekvéseit. A Nyugat-központú világ feltételezi a kategóriák univerzalitását, de éppen ez a feltételezés szorítja háttérbe a nem nyugati gondolkodást.…”