This research project has three objectives: 1) To gain a greater understanding of how management knowledge in Canada develops and how to diversify ideas in management education and disseminate management theories. 2) To examine how management knowledge becomes gendered and favors masculinity, and how to address discriminatory practices. 3) To understand how histories of Canadian management knowledge are created and how US management theories came to dominate, in order to encourage diverse ideas and forms of knowledge. The research combines several approaches to analyze knowledge production and history.

1. Research Team
Project Objectives Historiography in management and organization studies
Actor-network theory; Critical Sensemaking and ANTi-History
Sociology of Management Knowledge Network (SMK-N)
Reassembling Canadian Management Knowledge: Dispersion, Equity, Identity and History
Management theorizing and (the Canadian) context
The overall objective of this study is to gain a greater
understanding of how management knowledge in
Canada is developed and the implications for:
I. Management education and the
diversification and dissemination of ideas
II. Gender equity
III. Canadian identity and history in
management
theorizing
Funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
Micro processes of knowledge production
Feminist theories of the gendering of knowledge
How do certain forms of (management) knowledge
become gendered (i.e., favour masculinity over
femininity; maleness over femaleness, etc.)? By
understanding some key processes through which
knowledge comes to privilege masculinity over
femininity, we can identity more profound ways of
addressing discriminatory practices.
How do certain forms of (management) knowledge
develop? Through greater understanding of the
process we are better placed to understand,
encourage and disseminate diverse ideas or forms of
knowledge.
How is knowledge of the past created and how does
this shape our understanding of management and
organizational history (in Canada)? Here we are
interested in examining the processes through which
a history (or histories) of Canadian management
thought is lacking and where US management
thought appears to dominate Canadian management
theorizing.
This research takes a postpositivist approach that
combines actor-network theory, poststructuralist
feminist theory, and an approach to the study of
history and the past, ANTi-History, that draws on the
sociology of knowledge, poststructuralist
historiography and actor network theory that is closer
to cultural theory than history per se. This research
draws on insights from sociology, gender
studies/feminism, and cultural theory/new
historicism.
Albert J. Mills (Principal Investigator) Saint Mary’s University
Jean Helms Mills (co-investigator) Saint Mary’s University
Gabrielle Durepos (co-investigator) St. Frances Xavier University
Amy Thurlow (co-investigator) Mount Saint Vincent University
Terrence Weatherbee (co-investigator) Acadia University
Patricia McLaren (co-investigator) Wilfrid Laurier University
Kristene Coller (PhD student) Saint Mary’s University
L-R Gabrielle Durepos, Terrance Weatherbee, Amy Thurlow, Jean Helms Mills, Albert Mills, Kristene Coller, Patricia McLaren