Management Movement in India-Towards a Critical History

Towards a Critical History V Padaki This paper questions the widespread assumption that technology and management techniques are value-free. It argues that the apparent failure of technology and management in accomplishing the developmental objectives in several third world countries has to be traced to an inadequate appreciation of the historical context in which these techniques emerged and have been deployed successfidly. It suggests that the intervention of advanced techniques of management may have actually contributed, even if inadvertently, to further intensification of the state of underdevelopment in many underdeveloped countries. What is necessary is a recognition that the developmental objectives of highly advanced societies like that of the United States and of underdeveloped countries like India are significantly different; and only by a critical re-ordering of the institution of management can modern technology and management he harnessed towards these different objectives.