Management, decolonial history and literature: Macunaíma as anthropophagic literary personage to (re)think criticism in Management and Organization Studies (MOS)

Abstract

Given the asymmetric context of power in the production of knowledge and the institutional perpetuation of coloniality in the area of Management and Organization Studies (MOS), our reflection in this article presents two general contributions based on the articulation between the disciplines of management, history, and literature. Initially, we asked how we could (re)think the criticism in MOS from a historical-decolonial perspective in face of the reality of local management that constitutes our empirical demands. In response, we rescued the literary work “Macunaíma, the hero without character” written by Mário de Andrade, and the concept of anthropophagy.  We propose to think about critical epistemological projects that understand the epistemic mismatch between the Global North and the Global South. We argue that the construct: management in reverse and without character - provides a theoretical potential for the interpretation of management practiced in the Global South, which comprises elements such as the non-identity; conflicting and ambiguous modern/colonial “place”; in addition to reverberating anthropophagic traits demarcating tropical management through transculturation, flexibility, adaptability, and miscibility. Finally, we show how previous experiences with popular culture organizations presented the analytical and multi-universal ambivalence of local management. Organizational characteristics such as ancestry, daily life, mysticisms, and transmission of knowledge through orality are presented in the article.