Abstract
This article proposes (re)thinking and questioning certain aspects of teaching and research on management to add a reflective nature to the debate. The study adopts a confessional discourse and presents the development and legitimization of management education and research, based on the literature on Americanism and post-colonialism. This theoretical framework may allow a better understanding of how management and teaching methods spread worldwide. The research suggests the existence of an American model of productivity and education (management, the one best way) becoming something natural and universal while reducing local management initiatives and silenced contexts and actors potentially able to build their own field of knowledge in management. The study also discusses that understanding the context in which the management emerged may reinforce certain reflections about some of the decisions related to an academic career in management, especially in terms of professor’s and researcher’s attitude and practice. These are essential themes for academics in training and for those who have any aspiration to become an academic or simply to pursue undergraduate and graduate degrees in management.
Keywords:
Teaching and research in management; Academic career; Post-colonialism; Americanism