Critical Perspectives on Management

Module code: MN7567

Module Outline

Today concerns over the conduct but more importantly the basic methods and goals of business and management have manifested themselves in a widespread and broad-based anti-capitalist movement. This module seeks to provide an introduction to this movement, with a view to a deeper understanding of the reasons for the emergence of this current resistance to capitalism and the practices of business and management. The goal of the module is not to provide tools for controlling or 'managing' anti-capitalism, but to try to understand the goals and strategies of anti-capitalism. This will be done by (1) sketching an historical and theoretical framework to understand corporate capitalism and (2) looking in some detail at three instances of contemporary anti-capitalism.

At the end of this module students should:

• Have an increased understanding of the contemporary cultural and political context of business and management practice.
• Have an increased ability to understand different viewpoints on the issues raised in the module.
• Have developed mature and intelligent ways of negotiating these differences.