Decolonizing Management and Organization Studies: Taking Stock and Looking Forward

Calls to “decolonize” management and organization studies (MOS) have become increasingly louder within the field. These calls stem from an understanding that MOS, in its current form, has been shaped primarily by European and North American perspectives and world views and continues to be dominated by them. Decolonial approaches seek to dismantle colonial legacies and the Eurocentric and North American domination of the body of knowledge of MOS, advocating for inclusivity and diversity of knowledge traditions that have been excluded and silenced by colonialism. This paper provides an overview of these decolonial approaches that are increasingly embraced by MOS scholarship. We outline the diversity of these approaches and their various origins. We take stock of how decolonial approaches have been mobilized within MOS as well as suggest some avenues that we believe to be fertile for the continued growth of decolonial approaches in MOS.