Critical pedagogy for teaching HRM in the context of social change

Abstract

This paper considers the imperatives of human resource management (HRM) studies in the context of contemporary South Africa. The authors draw on critical management studies (CMS) and the principles of emancipatory education to inform their argument for a critical and relevant HRM curriculum and associated teaching and learning approaches. The authors propose that the content and processes of HRM education must prepare students for critical participation in the contemporary South African society and workplace. The discussion outlines the rationale for the study, the specific prompts for its initiation, the theoretical framework of CMS, and Freire's concept of emancipatory education.

Critical Management Studies in the South African context

“…As we argued in our 2014 paper (Ruggunan & Spiller 2014), we support calls by Moosmayer (2012) and Lukea-Bhiwajee (2010) towards the following:…”

“…In our 2014 article, 'Critical pedagogy for social change' (Ruggunan & Spiller 2014), I reflect on my journey from being an academic in a department of industrial psychology to being an academic in a department of human resources, albeit at the same university.…”

“…As argued by Ruggunan and Spiller (2014) and Moosmayer (2012), the positioning of positivist values as universal and neutral has been mainstreamed into management studies as a discipline. This concurs with Ruggunan and Spiller's (2014) argument that the values of positivist approaches to social sciences should be made explicit. They contend that the positivist approach constructs the academic as a 'value-free agent' in the classroom.…”

“…How then can a management-studies academic disrupt this notion of a value-free or economic rationalist approach to HRM? Ruggunan and Spiller (2014) posed this question in 2014 in their speculative piece on critical management studies for social change in South Africa. Since then, there has been a colloquium on critical management studies organised at the University of Johannesburg in 2015 and an Academic Monitoring and Support Colloquium at the UKZN where critical management studies was the theme of the keynote address given by myself.…”

Decolonising management studies: A love story

“…Ruggunan and Spiller (2014) posed this question in 2014 in their speculative piece on critical management studies for social change in South Africa. Since then, there has been a colloquium on critical management studies organised at the University of Johannesburg in 2015 and an Academic Monitoring and Support Colloquium at the UKZN where critical management studies was the theme of the keynote address given by myself.…”