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Postcolonial theory examines the legacy of colonialism and imperialism on societies, cultures, and knowledge systems. It analyzes how colonial power relationships continue to shape modern institutions and discourses, even after formal independence. It interrogates the ongoing effects of colonial practices on contemporary societies and cultures, emphasizing the power dynamics inherent in postcolonial relationships and the discursive formations that arise from them (Ponzanesi, 2020; Go, 2018).
Importance of Postcolonial Theorizing in Organization Studies
In organization studies, postcolonial theory is important for several reasons. First, it helps organizations develop more inclusive and equitable approaches by understanding how historical power imbalances continue to shape organizational realities. Second, it challenges Western-centric management theories and practices by revealing how they often universalize Western experiences while marginalizing non-Western perspectives. Third, it examines how colonial power dynamics persist in global organizations through knowledge hierarchies, management practices, and resource distribution. Fourth, it provides critical insights into multinational corporations operating in formerly colonized regions, highlighting issues of exploitation, cultural imposition, and inequitable labor relations (Lahiri et al., 2021; Tárnok, 2024). And finally, it reveals how organizational language, structures, and practices can reproduce colonial relationships through seemingly neutral “best practices” that actually privilege Western epistemologies (Kaasila‐Pakanen, 2016; Seremani & Clegg, 2015).
The early scholars of postcolonial theory came from varied backgrounds — Anshuman Prasad from organization studies, Edward Said and Homi Bhabha came from the field of literature, while Ashis Nandy was a psychologist. They along with Subhabrata Bobby Banerjee, Eduardo Ibarra-Colado and others have applied postcolonial perspectives to analyze management education, cross-cultural management, corporate social responsibility, and international development. Their work shows how seemingly neutral organizational processes often reinforce neocolonial relationships through knowledge transfer, resource extraction, and cultural homogenization. It empowers academics and practitioners to critique the normative frameworks that dominate organizational studies and to advocate for more equitable and inclusive paradigms in management theories, thereby inviting a re-examination of not only how organizations function but also whom they serve and how they serve them (Nkomo, 2011; Daniels & Enslin, 2023). Therefore by incorporating postcolonial perspectives, organization studies can develop more culturally sensitive, historically aware, and equitable approaches to understanding organizational phenomena across diverse global contexts.
However, postcolonial theory is experiencing a backlash in the 21st century, and researchers are interested in uncovering why. These critiques range from methodological concerns to political objections, coming from all sides of the political spectrum. Understanding this backlash helps us see the contested terrain of knowledge production that postcolonial theory itself seeks to analyze. Firstly, some critiques argue that mainstream postcolonial theory tends to focus excessively on identity-based arguments, failing to adequately incorporate class dimensions of oppression. Bağlama and Güngör (2023) contend that postcolonial narratives often emphasize victimization and identity without recognizing how economic structures contribute to ongoing forms of oppression. Additionally, critiques of postcolonial theory often emerge from perceived disillusionment among scholars and practitioners regarding its practical applicability in addressing real-world problems, and that accusations that postcolonial thought undermines intellectual values and lowers standards rather than expands knowledge. Certain ideological frameworks can become so detached from the lived experiences of marginalized populations, leading to a form of “inverted disillusionment” that seeks alternative approaches to theory and practice (Agunbiade, 2023). Prakash (2022) argues that wide ranges of actors from state officials to segments of academia have broadly rejected race and colonialism as pivotal themes in shaping current sociopolitical landscapes.
Also, theories based on ambivalence and hybridity (see Bhabha below) do not provide an adequate prescription for action and instead encourages continued dominance and exploitation. Feminist theories have also argued that postcolonial theory was developed primarily through a male lens and discounted gender. There are also methodological and epistemological concerns, such as to what extent the theory sufficiently explains colonization across different national or regional contexts in time.
Some Foundational Works on Postcolonial Theory in Organization Studies
Postcolonial theory in organization studies has been shaped by several influential scholars who have applied postcolonial insights to understand how colonial legacies persist in contemporary organizational contexts. This is not intended to be an authoritative set (there would be much disagreement with the list) but it provides a representative sample of texts covering the field.
Anshuman Prasad, Postcolonial theory and organizational analysis (2003)
Anshuman Prasad has made fundamental contributions by introducing postcolonial theory to management and organization studies, and we covered a couple of his best-known works in Episode 124. His work focuses on examining how management knowledge is created and disseminated globally through colonial and neocolonial power relations. He critiqued the universalist claims of Western management theories by showing how they marginalize non-Western knowledge systems, offering the concept of postcolonial theory as a tool of organizational analysis to reveal how colonial patterns of domination are reproduced in modern organizations. Thus, Prasad’s work helps us understand how organizational knowledge is produced within historical power relations that privilege Western epistemologies.
Postcolonial theory and organizational analysis is an edited volume of his where in the introductory chapter he introduces the works of several foundational scholars and works contributing to the theory. But one must be careful not to view Prasad’s works as blindly promoting postcolonialism. He showed cautiousness about presenting postcolonial thought as a unified and straightforward idea. In the latter part of the chapter, he summarizes some of the disagreements and debates, such as around the meaning of “post” in postcolonialism. He then introduces the volume’s goal of applying postcolonial perspectives to a better understanding of organizations, especially along cross-cultural contexts.
Edward Said, Orientalism (1978)
Edward Said was of Palestinian descent initial raised in Jerusalem, but his family moved to Egypt due to the 1947 Palestine War. He would later move to the United States, completing his PhD in English literature from Harvard and eventually joining Columbia University for Comparative Literature Studies (Borger, 1999). His book Orientalism was his best-known work, a criticism of a persistent Eurocentric culture that is now considered among the foundational texts of postcolonial theory. He examined how Western scholarly, literary, and artistic representations of “the Orient” constructed an imaginary East as its object of inquiry solely from a Western viewpoint. He thus showed how knowledge production served imperial power by creating a binary between the rational, progressive West and the irrational, backward East, creating the moral justifications for colonialism (Prasad, 2003: 9-14).
Said drew on Michel Foucault’s theories of discourse and power to show how colonial knowledge wasn’t simply biased but actively produced the realities it claimed to describe. This connection between post-structuralism and postcolonial critique became a defining feature of the field.
Ashis Nandy, The intimate enemy: Loss and recovery of self after colonialism (1983)
Ashis Nandy was trained as a clinical psychologist, and from this contributed to postcolonial theory by explicating the psychology of colonialism (Prasad 2003). He was a prolific author so it is not possible to limit his ideas to a single work, but we have chosen this 1983 book as a good representation. It goes beyond the common viewpoints of colonialism as a form of physical conquest such as the acquisition of territory and extraction of resources. Rather, Nandy sought to explain the colonization of the mind in which the colonized undergo changes in the way they think and believe in line with the dominant culture of the colonizers. Thus, this “second colonization” as he describes it is effectively perpetrated by relatively benign actors such as missionaries, scientists, teachers, and others who legitimately seek progress. The interplay among various subgroups among colonizers and the colonized alike becomes rather complex where both colonizers and the colonized become indistinct and both victimized by colonialism. From this, Nandy promoted a hybrid idea of psychological resistance against colonialism where colonizers rebel against the domination as being out of character with the true, more gentle or humane, culture from the home country.
Subhabrata Bobby Banerjee, “Necrocapitalism” (2008)
Subhabrata Bobby Banerjee’s concept of necrocapitalism examines how global capital accumulation continues colonial patterns of dispossession and extraction, particularly in resource-rich regions. Corporate social responsibility programs are often analyzed as modern versions of “civilizing missions” that position Western corporations as benevolent actors while masking exploitative relationships.
In other works, he critiques the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability (see Rack CS) discourses as forms of “development” that often mask exploitative relations. He also examines how management education reproduces colonial mindsets by privileging Western business models.
Homi Bhabha, The location of culture (1994)
Homi Bhabha’s academic career began in English literature but moved to become an important critical theorist. He introduced concepts of ambivalence, mimicry, and hybridity to describe a more complex state of colonial discourse (Huddart, 2018). As described in Prasad (2003), Bhabha showed the ambivalence of how Western societies simultaneously thought little of non-Western cultures and yet desired possessing them, or that non-West societies were considered weak yet viewed them suspiciously as deeply threatening. The overall discourse was equally shown to be self-contradictory between simultaneously valuing and disparaging differences, therefore rendering the discourse itself weakened and therefore providing avenues for resistance. Mimicry is the copying of colonizer behaviors by the colonized, thus becomes simultaneously both the effect of colonizers on the colonized but also according to Bhabha an important space of resistance by which the colonizers’ powers are destabilized and undermined (Prasad, 2003: 21). Hybridity is the creation of new cultural forms that are combinations of the colonized and colonizing cultures, a form of appropriation that prevents the erasure of indigenous cultures but instead allows them to survive through blending, and ultimately foster resistance.
Eduardo Ibarra-Colado, “Organization studies and epistemic coloniality in Latin America: thinking otherness from the margins” (2006)
Ibarra-Colado was a scholar of organization studies from Mexico who wrote books on power, education, and (especially) colonialism in Latin America (Clegg, 2013). We covered his most famous article in Episode 70 where he examined how management knowledge travels from the “center” (Western countries, particularly the US) to the “periphery” (Latin America and other postcolonial regions). He showed that this knowledge transfer isn’t neutral but involves power relationships that establish what counts as legitimate organizational knowledge. He introduced the concept of epistemic coloniality to describe how colonial relations continue through knowledge systems. He argued that organizational knowledge produced in the West is presented as universal and objective, while knowledge from other regions is treated as merely local, particular, or less developed. The article represents a manifesto and call to action by all scholars to consider how the current paradigm severely disadvantages scholarship in Latin America — a region that includes Mexico, Central America, South America, and the Caribbean. This region is home to both global enterprises and deeply historic indigenous cultures, each with important stories to tell about organizations and organizing. Ibarra-Colado charges that the current approach to scholarship forces Latin American scholars to forgo their own identity and assume that of what he called the “Anglo-Euro-Centre” that disproportionately controls the generation of knowledge in unhelpful ways.
Contemporary Areas of Research
Researchers are applying postcolonial frameworks to understand how digital technologies create new colonial relationships:
Data Colonialism. There are several threads in this topic area. The works of Couldry and Mejias focus on the concept of data colonialism that examines how data extraction from Global South populations mirrors colonial resource extraction. On of their books, The costs of connection (2020) shows how tech platforms create dependencies and exploit users globally while concentrating wealth in Silicon Valley. Arora and Rangaswamy’s collaborations on digital leisure practices challenges assumptions about how people in the Global South use technology. Their works reveals how universalizing Western digital design ignores local contexts and needs, reproducing colonial patterns of imposing “solutions” without understanding local realities. And, Michael Kwet’s (2019) concept of digital colonialism examines how the technological infrastructure itself—from fiber optic cables to cloud services—reproduces colonial geographies and dependencies. This research connects digital systems to longer histories of infrastructure colonialism.
Environmental Justice and Climate Colonialism. Postcolonial approaches to environmental issues have gained significant traction. Rob Nixon’s (2011) concept of “slow violence” examines how environmental damage unfolds gradually in postcolonial contexts, often invisible to global media but devastating to affected communities. This work connects environmental harm to longer histories of extraction and dispossession. Meanwhile, writers like Amitav Ghosh (2022) are exploring how climate change discourse reproduces colonial relationships through technological solutions that benefit Western corporations while imposing burdens on formerly colonized regions. This growing literature on climate colonialism examines how responses to global environmental crises often reinforce existing power hierarchies.
Decolonizing Methodologies and Knowledge Production. Research on how knowledge itself is produced continues to develop. Linda Tuhiwai Smith’s (2021) work on decolonizing methodologies has inspired numerous studies examining how research practices can resist rather than reproduce colonial relationships. This has led to innovations in participatory research design, consent practices, and approaches to data ownership. Open access publishing initiatives like those championed by the Directory of Open Access Journals in the Global South challenge unequal access to academic knowledge. Research on scholarly communications explores how academic publishing systems create knowledge hierarchies that privilege Western institutions and scholars. Boaventura de Sousa Santos’s (2024) work on ecologies of knowledge examines how diverse knowledge systems can complement each other in addressing complex global challenges. This approach challenges the monoculture of Western scientific knowledge without rejecting science itself.
Comparative and Transregional Approaches. Research that moves beyond single regions or colonial systems may offer new perspectives (Crossley & Tiky, 2004). Comparative studies of different colonial systems—British, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, Japanese—are revealing important variations in colonial practices and legacies. This work may challenge homogenizing accounts of colonialism while identifying common patterns across diverse contexts. Transregional studies examining connections between places usually studied separately—like the Indian Ocean world—reveal networks and flows that cross conventional area studies boundaries. This research examines how colonial routes created enduring connections that continue to shape global relationships. Historical work on precolonial societies challenges narratives that position colonialism as the primary historical rupture, showing both the diversity of precolonial political formations and the many factors shaping social change beyond colonial intervention (Bam, et al., 2018).
Education and Curriculum Decolonization. The movement to decolonize education has gained momentum globally. Research on curriculum development examines how knowledge is selected, organized, and taught in ways that often center Western perspectives. This work has contributed to efforts to decolonize curricula to better accommodate global perspectives (Subedi, 2013). Studies of classroom practices explore how teaching methods themselves can reproduce or challenge colonial hierarchies of knowledge. This research has led to innovations in pedagogy that create more space for diverse knowledge traditions and learning approaches. Work on educational language policy examines tensions between using colonial languages that enable global communication and indigenous languages that preserve cultural knowledge and identity. This research informs bilingual and multilingual education programs that attempt to balance these concerns (e.g., Tollefson, 2012).
Organizational and Management Studies. Research applying postcolonial insights to organizations creates practical interventions. Studies of multinational corporations examine how management practices developed in Western contexts are imposed globally, often with problematic results. This research has led to more culturally responsive management approaches that recognize the value of diverse organizational forms. Work on international development organizations reveals how seemingly neutral technical assistance often reproduces colonial relationships of expertise and dependency. This research has supported shifts toward more collaborative and locally led development practices. Studies of global labor flows examine how colonial histories shape contemporary patterns of migration, outsourcing, and skills valuation. This research informs labor policies and organizing strategies that address historical inequities in global work arrangements (e.g., Nkomo, 2011).
The Value of Continuing Debate. The ongoing debates around postcolonial theory—its strengths, limitations, and applications—reflect the vitality of a field grappling with complex global realities. However, Agunbiade (2023) raises concerns regarding the perceived stagnation or crisis within postcolonial theory, advocating for a renewed engagement with its principles to address contemporary challenges and explore alternative narratives. He calls for a reinvigoration of the theory with practical applications that speak to today’s sociocultural dynamics, suggesting that without adaptation, postcolonial theory may risk becoming irrelevant in contemporary dialogues.
Related Episodes from the Talking About Organizations Podcast
124: Postcolonial Theory — Anshuman Prasad
70: Epistemic Coloniality in Latin America – Eduardo Ibarra-Colado
Related Resource Pages
Rack BA — Classic Organization and Management Theory
Rack BB1 – Organizational Behavior (Micro-Individual)
Rack BB2 — Organizational Behavior (Meso-Groups and Teams)
Rack BB3 — Organizational Behavior (Macro-Org/System)
Rack BC — Contingency Theory
Rack BD — Organizational Design
Rack BG — Organizational Development and Change
Rack BH – Human Dimension – Culture, Climate, Identity
Rack BI — Institution Theory
Rack BL — Leadership Theories
Rack BM – Modern Management Theories
Rack BQ — Postmodern and Critical Theories
Rack BS — Sociology & Anthropology
References
Agunbiade, O. (2023). Inverted disillusionment in postcolonial African literature. Imbizo, 14(1). https://doi.org/10.25159/2663-6565/11408
Anthropic. (2024). What is postcolonial theory and why is it important in organization studies; What were the specific contributions of Prasad, Frenkel, Banerjee, Mir, and other leading scholars in postcolonial theory; What about Ibarra-Colado and others on epistemological colonization; Please explain in more detail the origins of postcolonial theory; Has postcolonial theory evolved as globalization emerged, especially with technological change and the universality of English as the dominant language; Please explain more about the backlash against postcolonial theorizing; What are the most significant areas of contemporary research supporting or countering postcolonial theory and its practical applications; Claude (March 2024 version) [Large Language Model].
Arora, P., & Rangaswamy, N. (2013). Digital leisure for development: Reframing new media practice in the Global South. Media, Culture & Society, 35(7), 898-905.
Bağlama, S. and Güngör, B. (2023). Imperialism and literature: An imperialism-oriented reading of modern Turkish literature. Journal of European Studies, 53(3), 253-268. https://doi.org/10.1177/00472441231188782
Bam, J., Ntsebeza, L., & Zinn, A. (Eds.). (2018). Whose history counts: Decolonising African pre-colonial historiography. African Sun Media.
Banerjee, S. B. (2008). Necrocapitalism. Organization studies, 29(12), 1541-1563.
Bhabha, H. K. (2012). The location of culture. Routledge.
Borger, J. (1999, August 22). Friends rally to repulse attack on Edward Said. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/aug/23/israel
Clegg, S. (2013, May 21). Eduardo Ibarra Colado. European Group for Organization Studies. https://www.egos.org/jart/prj3/egos/data/uploads/_2013/Eduardo%20Ibarra%20Colado.pdf
Couldry, N., & Mejias, U. A. (2020). The costs of connection: How data is colonizing human life and appropriating it for capitalism. Stanford University Press.
Crossley, M., & Tikly, L. (2004). Postcolonial perspectives and comparative and international research in education: A critical introduction. Comparative education, 40(2), 147-156.
Daniels, S. and Enslin, P. (2023). Analytic philosophy of education and the postcolonial moment. Theory and Research in Education, 21(2), 216-231. https://doi.org/10.1177/14778785231184870
de Sousa Santos, B. (2024). The epistemologies of the South and the future of the university. Journal of Philosophy of Education, 58(2-3), 166-188.
Ghosh, A. (2022). The living mountain. Fourth estate India.
Go, J. (2018). Postcolonial possibilities for the sociology of race. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 4(4), 439-451. https://doi.org/10.1177/2332649218793982
Huddart, D. (2018). Homi K. Bhabha. Oxford Biographies. https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/display/document/obo-9780190221911/obo-9780190221911-0057.xml
Ibarra-Colado, E. (2006). Organization studies and epistemic coloniality in Latin America: Thinking otherness from the margins. Organization, 13(4), 463-488.
Kaasila-Pakanen, A. L. (2016). A postcolonial deconstruction of diversity management and multiculturalism. The Oxford handbook of diversity in organizations, 175-194.
Kwet, M. (2019). Digital colonialism: US empire and the new imperialism in the Global South. Race & class, 60(4), 3-26.
Lahiri, M., Bhandarker, A., & Behrens, A. (2021). Organizational memory and institution theory: a postcolonial perspective. Thunderbird International Business Review, 63(4), 487-501. https://doi.org/10.1002/tie.22189
Mejias, U. A., & Couldry, N. (2024). Data Grab: The new colonialism of big tech and how to fight back. University of Chicago Press.
Nandy, A. (1983). The intimate enemy: Loss and recovery of self after colonialism. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Nixon, R. (2011). Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor. Harvard University Press.
Nkomo, S. (2011). A postcolonial and anti-colonial reading of ‘African’ leadership and management in organization studies: Tensions, contradictions and possibilities. Organization, 18(3), 365-386. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508411398731
Prakash, A. (2022). Empire on the Seine: The Policing of North Africans in Paris, 1925-1975. Oxford University Press.
Prasad, A. (2003). Postcolonial theory and organizational analysis: A critical engagement. Springer.
Rangaswamy, N., & Arora, P. (2016). The mobile internet in the wild and every day: Digital leisure in the slums of urban India. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 19(6), 611-626.
Said, E. (1978). Introduction to orientalism. Media studies: A reader, 111-23.
Scite. (2024). What is postcolonial theory and why is it important in organization studies; Please explain more about the backlash against postcolonial theorizing; What are the most significant areas of contemporary research supporting or countering postcolonial theory and its practical applications; What about contemporary research using postcolonial theory in organization studies. Scite (April 2024 version) [Large Language Model].
Smith, L. T. (2021). Decolonizing methodologies: Research and indigenous peoples. Bloomsbury.
Subedi, B. (2013). Decolonizing the curriculum for global perspectives. Educational Theory, 63(6), 621-638.
Tárnok, A. (2023). Postcolonial studies: Polemics at the turn of the millennium. Pázmány Papers–Journal of Languages and Cultures, 1(1), 257-269.
Tollefson, J. W. (2012). Language policies in education. Routledge.
The inclusion of external links is for informational purposes only and does not necessarily constitute endorsement by TAOP or any of its members.
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