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Critical Theory of Organizations

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Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance
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Synonyms

Critical management studies; Critical organization studies; Critical postmodernity

Definition

Social theory of change in organizations

Introduction

Critical theories of organizations refer to the cluster of literature that typically employs elements of the Frankfurt School of critical theory as well as the work of post structural theorists like Deleuze, Derrida, and Foucault among others to understand managerial processes. If a common progenitor existed, one might argue it would be the work of Braverman (1974) who set the tone for critical inquiry in the context of labor. He particularly focused on how labor processes become power games using the combination of a Marxist perspective and concepts like deskilling.

Another critical point in early development comes with the work of Alvesson (1984), who uses the phrase critical organization theory, and begins exploring ties to the Frankfurt School along with issues of dominance in management studies. Alvesson (1984) explicitly...

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References

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Correspondence to Arthur J. Sementelli .

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Sementelli, A.J. (2016). Critical Theory of Organizations. In: Farazmand, A. (eds) Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy, and Governance. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_66-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_66-1

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-31816-5

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