
Challenging Colonizing Logics within Management Research
Towards a Broader View of Management
Donna Ladkin(Author)
Edward Elgar Publishing
Published on 27. June 2025
Book
Hardback
188 pages
978-1-0353-1937-4 (ISBN)
Description
Challenging Colonizing Logics within Management Research disrupts the assumption that the Western scientific method, with its emphasis on objectivity, measurement and categorizations is the best way to develop management knowledge. By reviewing the history of management as a discipline, Donna Ladkin exposes how colonizing logics have been 'baked into' the fabric of management practice and how it is studied.
The book offers alternative approaches to each stage of the research journey, demonstrating how working differently can produce management knowledge that reflects the nuances, tensions and dynamism present whenever humans undertake purposeful action together. Lived examples of research conducted in ways that move beyond colonizing logics bring this radical approach alive.
Researchers, students of management and leadership as well as practitioners who want to think differently about management will welcome this innovative and thought-provoking book.
The book offers alternative approaches to each stage of the research journey, demonstrating how working differently can produce management knowledge that reflects the nuances, tensions and dynamism present whenever humans undertake purposeful action together. Lived examples of research conducted in ways that move beyond colonizing logics bring this radical approach alive.
Researchers, students of management and leadership as well as practitioners who want to think differently about management will welcome this innovative and thought-provoking book.
Reviews / Votes
'This groundbreaking volume offers a bold and necessary challenge to the colonial foundations of management research. By interrogating dominant logics and advocating for more inclusive, contextually grounded approaches, the author paves the way for a richer, more ethical understanding of management. A must-read for scholars committed to decolonizing knowledge and expanding the horizons of management thought.' -- Bobby Banerjee, Bayes Business School, City St George's, University of London, UK 'Anyone who hopes to do management research that goes beyond the exploitative tenets of colonialism that are deeply entrenched in so much of our thinking needs to read Donna Ladkin's breakthrough book Challenging Colonizing Logics within Management Research. The challenges of decolonizing our thinking and research approaches are immense, as Ladkin notes in the introduction, and yet to build a better world for humans and the rest of nature, doing just that is an imperative.' -- Sandra Waddock, Carroll School of Management, Boston College, USA 'This book demands more than reading - it calls for transformation. As an Indigenous researcher, I found it both affirming and unsettling in vital ways. Don't just take Professor Ladkin's challenging of colonising logics on board - embody it.' -- Chellie Spiller, University of Waikato, New Zealand 'This inspiring book looks at our world of management research through the laser sharp eyes of one of our field's most iconoclastic thinkers, and one of its best writers. Donna Ladkin's insights demolish the complacent colonialist logics that have reigned supreme and done so much damage - until now. I can't recommend it strongly enough.' -- Dennis Tourish, University of Sussex Business School, UKMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
Cheltenham
United Kingdom
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-0353-1937-4 (9781035319374)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Donna Ladkin, Professor of Inclusive Leadership, Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham, UK
Content
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
1 What are colonizing logics and how do they apply to
management research?
2 Management knowledge and knowledge production as a
colonizing force
3 Identifying and challenging colonizing logics
4 Approaches to research ethics that challenge colonizing logics
5 Articulating your research questions
6 Choosing a research methodology
7 Designing research that challenges colonizing logics
8 Generating meaning from data
9 Disseminating research results in inclusive ways
10 Creating broader views of management
References
Preface
Acknowledgements
1 What are colonizing logics and how do they apply to
management research?
2 Management knowledge and knowledge production as a
colonizing force
3 Identifying and challenging colonizing logics
4 Approaches to research ethics that challenge colonizing logics
5 Articulating your research questions
6 Choosing a research methodology
7 Designing research that challenges colonizing logics
8 Generating meaning from data
9 Disseminating research results in inclusive ways
10 Creating broader views of management
References