Teaching management critically : classroom practices under rival paradigms

Since the inclusion of management education (ME) in universities, there have been many debates around what it should be and whose interests it should reflect. Different perspectives on its value for business and/or society have divided the academic and professional communities. There is, however, agreement that universities need to provide knowledge and intellectual skills to prepare graduates to play a role in organizations where they will be employed. But what are the skills and knowledge needed, and whose interests define them? Should business schools respond to or challenge business interests? In this chapter I address the differences in the two existing paradigms in management, one represented by mainstream management and its hegemonic discursive regime of neoliberalism and managerialism, the other Critical Management Studies (CMS), which questions the legitimacy of dominant hegemonic business ideologies.