Indigenous Indian management

Abstract

A thought-provoking conversation began at a panel discussion titled ‘‘Indigenous Indian Management’’ at the Indian Academy of Management Conference in NMIMS, Mumbai, in early January of 2023. Management research in India has for long accepted universal theories given by the West, but theoretical abstractions when ruptured from the historical and cultural background of a particular context, and forcefully applied through a system of pressures and constraints to a completely different context, can fail to create meaning for the people for whom it truly matters (following Edward Said). It is increasingly accepted that contemporary management knowledge is based on Euro/ US-centric ontological, epistemological and even axiological assumptions that determine the theory, methods and values underlying management research in and on India. Despite the significant and unmistakable context-sensitive nature of management knowledge, Western theory and methods are considered the universal truth to be tested and merely tweaked in the Indian context.