Rationale

Since their first gradual appearance the ideas of Karl Marx have been the subject of debate, appropriation and successive attempts at revision.   The Frankfurt School’s work on technology and technocracy and the more recent rational choice theory approach of analytical Marxism are just two cases of attempts to ‘apply’ Marxist approaches to understanding the world since Marx.  Now with management a global function, and global managed organisations playing a shaping role, we invite fresh thinking about the relevance of Marx and Marxism to the modern managed world. 

 

Approaches may be critical or sympathetic, take a global perspective or address issues within one region or culture, address theory or draw on empirical findings.  All should seek to make an original contribution to our understanding of Marxism and management theory and practice at the start of the 21st century.  By ‘Marxism’ we mean the ideas of both Marx and those who have sought to develop them.

 

Scope

Contributors need not address them directly but should bear in mind recent themes in organisation and management such as the following: 

 

the rise of ecommerce, the internet and corporate intranets, the dotcom boom and bust; corporate frauds and collapse; mergers, acquisitions, leveraged buy outs, mezzanine financing, junk bonds and the phenomenon of financial engineering; the talk of a new economic paradigm; the flatter organisation; the focus on intellectual property and learning and on managing assets such as knowledge and brands; the role of emotional labourers, knowledge workers and advisors including consultants; new constructions of organisations as networks, teams and communities; the phenomenon of management best sellers and management gurus; the emergence of management as a profession, social group or class and chief executives as heroes in some cultures; the rise of ‘management-speak’; the search for a foundational discipline for management; the growth of interest in corporate governance, social responsibility and sustainability and stakeholder approaches;  the promotion of the shareholder value model of business; workers as owners through pension fund investments; the drive to privatise state enterprises and manage them as businesses; the shift to ‘New Public Management’ practices in government and public sectors; the movement of management into professional and healing services and ‘the creative industries’; the growth and diversity of management education and training (including company ‘universities’ in some countries); changing patterns of  work and employment; outsourcing; diversity, affirmative action and workplace justice; the ‘psychological contract’ and the employment contract; spirituality in the workplace; the growth in some cultures of self-managed worker cooperatives; the varying fortunes of trades unions and other employee bodies in different economies; the roles and responsibilities of managers in global organisations (business and others); the shifting relationships between managers and other interest groups on national and international stages; the growth of activities in business ethics and the emergence of ‘business ethicists’.