TY - JOUR
T1 - Shades of Red
T2 - Cold War Influences on Canadian and U.S. Business Textbooks
AU - Foster, Jason
AU - Helms Mills, Jean
AU - Mills, Albert J.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2014.
PY - 2014/10/1
Y1 - 2014/10/1
N2 - Textbooks are an important element in teaching management in higher education because of their assumed ability to disseminate key theories and debates in a seemingly objective fashion. However, a number of studies have questioned not only the scientific character of the textbook but also of management theory itself. More recent studies suggest that dominant notions of management theory in North America were shaped by the Cold War context. In this article, we examine the influence of sociopolitical context on the development of management textbooks in North America. In seeking a more nuanced approach to sociopolitical context that takes into account cross-cultural differences, we undertook a critical hermeneutic analysis on two sets of Cold War–era textbooks, one from the United States and another from Canada. We looked for important differences in how Cold War narratives are reproduced. Canadian textbooks were more likely to legitimize noncapitalist forms of organization, to allow for a more positive role for government, and to discuss communism and socialism more seriously and thoroughly. We argue that these differences are attributable to the divergent political context found in Canada during the Cold War era. The significance of this article is to recognize that discourses change geographically on a scale much smaller than anticipated.
AB - Textbooks are an important element in teaching management in higher education because of their assumed ability to disseminate key theories and debates in a seemingly objective fashion. However, a number of studies have questioned not only the scientific character of the textbook but also of management theory itself. More recent studies suggest that dominant notions of management theory in North America were shaped by the Cold War context. In this article, we examine the influence of sociopolitical context on the development of management textbooks in North America. In seeking a more nuanced approach to sociopolitical context that takes into account cross-cultural differences, we undertook a critical hermeneutic analysis on two sets of Cold War–era textbooks, one from the United States and another from Canada. We looked for important differences in how Cold War narratives are reproduced. Canadian textbooks were more likely to legitimize noncapitalist forms of organization, to allow for a more positive role for government, and to discuss communism and socialism more seriously and thoroughly. We argue that these differences are attributable to the divergent political context found in Canada during the Cold War era. The significance of this article is to recognize that discourses change geographically on a scale much smaller than anticipated.
KW - Cold War
KW - management education
KW - management history
KW - managerialism
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84907181048&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1052562914532802
DO - 10.1177/1052562914532802
M3 - Journal Article
AN - SCOPUS:84907181048
SN - 1052-5629
VL - 38
SP - 642
EP - 671
JO - Journal of Management Education
JF - Journal of Management Education
IS - 5
ER -