An Introduction to Critical Management Research

Why have certain theories shaped management research? Where do research theory and practice meet, if at all?

To ask these questions is to think critically about management research. Mihaela L Kelemen and Nick Rumens explore the fundamentals of critical management theory and their influences on management research, and in doing so offer the student an illuminating introduction to what is often a disparate and complex array of issues.

10 expressive chapters examine theoretical foundations, including those most often sidelined in mainstream management theory; from postmodernism and deconstruction to American pragmatism, along with methodological choices and the intellectual issues each of these presents. Also provided is a timely consideration to the consequences and ethical concerns now inherent to any research issue.

I hold a PhD in applied economics from the Academy of Economic Studies in Bucharest and a DPhil in Management Studies from Oxford University. I came to Keele in 1996 and was promoted to Chair in 2006. I am course director for the MA in Management/International Business and a member of the executive team responsible for the postgraduate provision in the school.

Nick′s research interests fall into three main areas: The study of friendships in the workplace, exploring how these relationships are understood and experienced by those who participate in them as well as how organisations understand and manage them. Recently, he has examined the role and meaning of friendship in the lives of gay men, exploring how friendships can provide forms of support and opportunities for constructing identities and selves. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) sexualities in the workplace. Nick has conducted research on how gay men negotiate professional, sexual and gender identities against a range of organizational contexts including those claiming to be ‘gay-friendly’. Critical management research. Much of this area has focused on how critical theory perspectives seldom used by management researchers (e.g. Queer theory and American Pragmatism) can be applied within the field of organization studies.