How to promote inclusion, collective intelligence and democracy

Abstract

The reviews in this edition of the Journal have in common a critique of the language and practices of the business and organizational world, together with suggestions and approaches to improve that world through the promotion of inclusion, collective intelligence and democracy. In a contribution which illustrates the increasingly wide reach of action approaches to knowledge and learning, Fadhila Yonata and colleagues from STAIN University in Indonesia review Critical Action Research: Challenging Neoliberal Language and Literacies Education by Antoinette Gagne ́ et al. Whilst the authors of this book discuss ‘Critical Action Research’ in the context of educational settings, Anderson argues that the findings are equally relevant to community and organizational environments. One interesting chapter reports on how teachers as researchers working with critical action research challenged the use of neoliberal language and ‘the language of prestige’ (English) by using local languages as the medium of instruction. By contrast, the world of the Business Schools seems to be somewhere that critical action research and learning have yet to reach. In his review of Martin Parker’s Shut Down the Business School: What’s Wrong with Management Education, Chris Blantern notes Parker’s accusation that the Business Schools serve to normalize institutional power and reinforce divisions in society rather than enabling students to be more aware of the futures they are being enrolled to deliver and educating them for the benefit of society rather than for private gain. For Parker, the Business School remains ‘a factory for producing employees for capitalist organizations, a machine for producing a very particular kind of future.’ This core function remains critically unaddressed and yet, as Blantern points out in his critique, Parker doesn’t inquire into the kinds of learning that would populate his ‘school for organizing’. Action research and action learning are obvious candidates, being inclusive and pragmatic whilst also inculcating democratic and ethical ways of working. Continuing the theme of how our professions and institutions serve to encourage private gain via ‘surfing capitalism’s changing trends’, John Edmonstone reviews Mariana Mazzucato and Rosie Collington’s The Big Con: How the Consulting Industry Weakens our Businesses, Infantilizes our Governments and Warps our Economies. The big consultancies have profited greatly in the era of public sector ‘reforms’, based on the myth that the entire sector is inefficient, ineffective and un-innovative, and have somehow gained a reputation for being indispensable. The authors’ conclusion is that instead of wasting billions in this way, governments should invest in creating capable organizations that foster learning where people are empowered to take risks: ‘It is time to invest in the collective intelligence of the public sector and end the consulting con once and for all.’ To close his review, Edmonstone shows how the philosophy and practices of action learning are ideally suited to this vital task. A key part of the development of ‘collective intelligence’ is the fostering of inclusion and diversity in workplaces. Our fourth review is of the latest edition of the well-established text Managing Diversity: Toward a Globally Inclusive Workplace by Michalle Mor Barak. Reviewed