There has recently been a growing interest in Critical Management Studies (CMS). One way to find out what elements make up a field of study is to analyze the contents of the most influential writings in the field. In this work, an attempt has been made to identify the most cited work in the specialty of Strategic Management from the academic production in Brazil. More than 100 articles from this field were compiled and formed a database of all references used in all these articles. Some writings can be considered to be central texts of a management specialty. In their role as dominating texts they could be argued to form a central knowledge core that other authors call upon to make a point. Thereby, they serve as representatives for the core knowledge base of a management specialty. An attempt was made to classify the most cited texts by characterizing them as regards knowledge interests, based on Habermas' theory of knowledge and interest on which the production of knowledge rests. The three interest types are: technical, practical and emancipatory. The purpose was to see how critical studies are underpinning the strategic management specialty. The findings show that the mainstream management knowledge in Brazil seems not to allow a critique and that the field of strategic management lacks a hermeneutic or interpretive knowledge interest.
Strategic management; critical management studies; critical theory; knowledge interests; Habermas' taxonomy
