Abstract
Abstract This research analyzes the International Master’s Program for Managers (IMPM) internationalization process through a partnership established with a Brazilian Higher Education Institution. IMPM was conceived by Henry Mintzberg in 1996 as a program strong enough to challenge traditional American MBA programs since Mintzberg proposes that “managers not MBAs” should prevail. A critical perspective is adopted here to investigate whether the IMPM privileges an Anglo-Saxon point of view or not. We used a qualitative approach involving ninety-six in-depth interviews with faculty members and directors from both institutions responsible for establishing this partnership and carrying out the Brazilian module of the program, eight of which are addressed in this paper. Professor Henry Mintzberg was one of the interviewees. The findings show that despite all the efforts to preserve local culture, an Anglo-Saxon logic prevails, and there is an imbalance between the initial proposition and the results. There are a lot of unexplored issues to solve considering this framework, and future studies should consider and propose the recognition of the local production of knowledge and cultural diversity as key elements for the success of international partnerships.
Highlights
Asymmetries in the production and dissemination of Management and Organizational Knowledge (MOK) have been the object of investigation of scholars from the center (e.g., Cummings & Bridgman, 2016; Murphy & Zhu, 2012), as well as scholars from the periphery (Alcadipani, 2017; Wanderley & Barros, 2018)
The definition of who or what constitutes “the international other” depends on who is asking the questions and, often, these questions are lost in the research on international management, especially when it does not consider the relationships characterized by asymmetries of power found in the international context (Alcadipani & Faria, 2014; Mir & Mir, 2013)
The center has the power to determine how the knowledge in question should be diffused, which by itself, may already be enough to demonstrate its domination and asymmetry (Alcadipani, 2017). Corroborating this vision, here is the testimony of another member of the faculty who has been present in the administration of the International Master’s Program for Managers (IMPM) since its creation: For the term “global managers”, we attached the definition of managers who were the gods who drove globalization, and I think there was a sense within the program that this was a process that made the whole world fit into an American model
Summary
Asymmetries in the production and dissemination of Management and Organizational Knowledge (MOK) have been the object of investigation of scholars from the center (e.g., Cummings & Bridgman, 2016; Murphy & Zhu, 2012), as well as scholars from the periphery (Alcadipani, 2017; Wanderley & Barros, 2018). This idea is based on Lukes (2005), known for his “radical vision” of power, which considers power to be a political activity that defines the very ground on which political actors understand their situation within the world system This perspective informs how we deal in this article with the phenomenon of the establishment of partnerships between HEI on either side of the center-periphery division. The IMPM is an international master’s degree program for experienced executives, which has adopted a course model that has been adapting to world configurations for twenty years This fact can be observed from its changing partners over time, and it currently operates in five countries, three of which are emerging: India (from the beginning of the program in 1996), China (since 2011) and Brazil (since 2012). There is a reinforcement of the problem of domination in the management field, with countries like the United States and the United Kingdom exerting an influence on less developed or peripheral countries, such as emerging countries
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