Systematic Review of “Critical Management Studies”

Abstract

Critical Management Studies (CMS) has been flourishing world-wide since the 1990s with the UK as its geographical centre. However, it is less known in Japanese academia on business administration probably due to the wide range of difficult theoretical research topics. This study conducts a systematic review of CMS literature to date to clarify what CMS is, what the term “critical” means, how it has emerged, and which field it has actively studied. We found that: 1) Originated in the research on Critical Theory, recent CMS is based on a diverse theoretical background, and adopts such various perspectives as race, environment, sexuality, and gender, and 2) major reviews on CMS share the view that CMS can be characterized by denaturalization, reflexivity, and (non) performative intent. We also found that in recent years there has been a growing research on “critical performativity”, which has evolved from the debate on the (non) performative intent.