This article, first, proposes critical grounded theory (CGT) as a way to develop systematically an array of methods and theoretical propositions into a coherent critical methodology for organization studies (and beyond). Second, it demonstrates CGT’s usefulness through a case study of competing recovery projects from the Icelandic financial crisis. CGT is developed in engagement with the emerging paradigm of cultural political economy (CPE) and its preferred method of critical discourse analysis (CDA). CPE analyses the evolution of ‘economic imaginaries’ in both their structural/material and semiotic/discursive dimensions. This requires a critical realist, multi-dimensional research strategy which emphasizes ethnographic methods and substantial theoretical and historical work. The proposed methodology of CGT enables a retroductive research process that combines deductive theoretical deskwork with inductive fieldwork enabled by grounded theory tools to analyse organizational process, stability and change.

Scientific discourses of decent work can be roughly grouped into two main lines of interpretation. The first, optimistic line sees the International Labour Organisation's (ILO) decent work agenda as indicative of counter-hegemonic forces successfully injecting post-neo-liberal norms into global labour regulation. Specifically, feminist scholars have welcomed the emergence of decent work, because of its explicit concern with non-standard work, informal labour and care work. The second, more pessimistic line is critical of the decent work agenda, seeing it as compatible with or even reinforcing neo-liberal hegemony, especially because of its embrace of soft labour regulation and corporate social responsibility. This article aims to analyse the paradoxes of decent work by putting this discourse in its historical and theoretical context. The article first draws on the framework of Cultural Political Economy (CPE) to identify competing 'economic imaginaries' of decent work. Two prominent interpretations will be juxtaposed to outline a 'feminist' and a 'business case' decent work imaginary. Second, the article interrogates two different ILO initiatives, each of which is underpinned by one of these decent work imaginaries, in terms of the ways they may challenge or reinforce neo-liberal hegemony -the Domestic Workers Convention and the Better Work Programme.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to take conceptual and methodological steps towards the elaboration of the critical grounded theory (CGT) method. Design/methodology/approach – Starting from conceptual issues with mapping everyday discourses and practices in their broader societal context in organisational ethnography, cultural political economy (CPE) is proposed as a suitable theoretical framework for integrating the cultural dimension of discourses and imaginaries into political-economic analyses of organisation and management. The CGT method is introduced for empirical operationalisation. Findings – Grounded theory tools for working with ethnographic data can be employed within critical approaches such as CPE although they originate from positivist social science. The need to combine ethnographic fieldwork with substantial theoretical work and/or critical discourse analysis may be met by CGT, which affords the ethnographic strengths of grounded theory without, however, bracketing the critical-theoretical insights of CPE. Research limitations/implications – The usefulness of CGT has been tentatively tested, but requires thorough meta-theoretical and methodological development, which is what is undertaken here. Social implications – CGT expects and takes account of the social implications of its employment in the field. Originality/value – First steps towards a new critical method for organisation and management studies are taken. Although originating from concern with CPE, the CGT method may appeal to a wider audience of critical scholars across the social sciences.

Neoliberal globalization has moved industrial production to low-wage countries such as China or Indonesia, fuelling rapid economic growth and rising national income. New employment opportunities, however, have been underpinned by poverty wages and inhumane working conditions as states 'race to the bottom' in terms of labour rights and regulations in order to be competitive and attract capital investment. Labour agency at the bottom of transnational supply chains is often said to be structurally powerless because of the international mobility of capital. The 'boomerang effect' has often been presented as a remedy that increases local bargaining power in the global South by mobilizing consumer pressure in the global North through multi-stakeholder initiatives or transnational advocacy networks. The problem with this perspective is that it overstates the Northern dimension of this transnational politics and underestimates the local power base of Southern trade unions and labour movements. The incipient debate about Networks of Labour Activism (NOLA) aims to overcome this Northern bias. This article contributes to this debate by highlighting some of the limitations and unintended effects of multi-stakeholder initiatives and taking a closer look at the Play Fair alliance and the 'Freedom of Association Protocol' in Indonesia's athletic footwear industry.