Ideology in Management Studies

Abstract

Ideology is a core and contested concept in the social sciences, but also long deployed in management research to highlight the political, embedded and/or obscuring nature of ideas. Indeed, many would argue that management itself is inherently ideological in legitimating or privileging managerial interests and concealing other groups and ways of organizing. In the first systematic review of how ideology has been conceptualized in management studies, this paper explores its diverse and changing meanings in order to develop and sustain the concept. It is based on a heuristic review of 175 articles and 41 books published between 1956 and 2018. Further developing categories used in the social sciences around its role, we found views of ideology as: (1) domination; (2) legitimation; (3) interpretation; (4) integration; and (5) normative logic. In addition, emerging perspectives were identified where ideology was (6) an object of critique or (7) fantasy structuring social reality. We describe, illustrate and evaluate these often internally diverse and interrelated perspectives, as well as comparing them with sometimes competing notions within the management field, such as discourse, culture and legitimation. We also bring together the different approaches and argue for a pluralist, but not infinitely flexible, approach to the concept. In doing so, we identify research agendas for ideology within management and organization studies.

Artificial intelligence and rationalized unaccountability: Ideology of the elites?

“…Specifically, we argue that rationalized unaccountability today is an ideological state in which power and control are exerted algorithmically. The concept of ideology is contested, and it is studied in different ways in diverse research traditions (Seeck et al, 2020). We conceive of ideology in the present context as production of self-evident truths.…”

From stress to resistance: Challenging the capitalist underpinnings of mental unhealth in work and organizations

“…We further expanded our sample by identifying more than 50 other unique texts, which were referenced and highlighted by texts within our first selection of articles (cp. Seeck et al, 2019).…”

Ideologies of Corporate Responsibility: From Neoliberalism to “Varieties of Liberalism”

“…Gond and Nyberg (2017) reflect on ideology (without engaging theoretically with the construct as such) in their analysis of how power is constituted and expressed in business and society research, and Scherer and Palazzo (2007) touch briefly on ideology in their conceptualization of political CSR (see later). To iterate, we build on an understanding of ideology as “inherently political, social and pervasive” (Seeck et al, 2019: 16); our focus is the ideological constitution of the scholarly CSR debate more broadly, and our starting point is that it comprises different forms of liberal ideology.…”

“…Even in political CSR, research matters of ideology are not usually foregrounded. This arguably reflects a broader tendency in organization and management studies to dismiss or declare the end of ideology or to substitute it with less overtly political notions, such as "discourse," "frames of reference," "cognitive maps," or "beliefs" 637 Ideologies of Corporate Responsibility (Seeck, Sturdy, Boncori, & Fougere, 2019). However, to embrace ideology is to forgo belief that there can be such a thing as value-free theorizing within the realm of the social sciences (Geertz, 1973;Mannheim, 1929Mannheim, /1991.…”