Abstract:
Taking the deconstructionists’ approach, this paper questions the promises of
management by deconstructing the underlying dominant assumptions of management.
After exploring the historical factors that led theorists to conceptualize management as a
cause and effect relationship with their pre-occupation with the control of chaos, the
writers argue that chaos theory rather than Newtonian theory qualifies as a way of
conceptualizing management of organizations. Drawing the examples from Hawthorn
experiments and various suggestions for job designing, the writers question the notion of
controlling organizations towards the desired outcome and the modernists’ promise of
continuous progress. After questioning the validity of epistemological and ontological
assumptions of positivism – a dominant approach to study organizations, the writers
emphasize the need of taking anti-positivistic approach as an alternative methodological
paradigm to study organizations. The writers also draw the attention to the inability of
management curricula in Sri Lankan universities to incorporate postmodernists’
explanations of the behavior of organizations and lack of recognition given by Sri Lankan
researchers to anti-positivistic approach as an alternative methodological paradigm to
study organizations. Finally, they call for Sri Lankan scholars to take a broader
perspective in studying Sri Lankan organizations drawing methodological traditions
which are largely found in other disciplines such as sociology and anthropology.
