Debating ’Homo Academicus’ in Management and Organization: Ontological Assumptions and Practical Implications

In the fields of management and organization, there is an ongoing debate about different ontological assumptions about people in and around organizations, and the dangers of self-fulling prophecies, i.e., the phenomena in which unsubstantiated, unethical, or dysfunctional assumptions about people can lead to adverse practical consequences. This open access book advances this debate, but in a self-reflexive direction, asking: Who do we, as scholars in the fields of management and organization, think we are? What ontological assumptions about ourselves do we live by? Do we think we are something ＂special＂, a ’Homo Academicus’, distinctively separated from the life-world of managers and employees but linked with other academics such as, say, philosophers and sociologists? If so, what are the consequences and implications of such assumptions?
Part of the popular Palgrave Debates in Business and Management series, each of the chapters disclose, problematize, and criticize different ontological assumptions about ’Homo Academicus’ that underpins research in the fields of management and organization. It will be of great interest to management and organization scholars and students, as well as those with a broader interest in methodology and critical studies.

Silvia Cinque is a Lecturer in Organization and Management and the Dean’s Delegate for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at SDA Bocconi School of Management, Milan, Italy. She conducts research across the areas of organization and management theory, critical management studies, business and society, and social theory.

Daniel Ericsson is a Professor in Business Administration at the School of Business and Economics, Linnaeus University, Sweden, specializing in Organisation and Management. He is also a Visiting Professor in Cultural Entrepreneurship at Lund University, Sweden. His research is mainly carried out in the intersection of management, entrepreneurship and organization, with a special interest in creativity, and methods.