Critical Management Studies and resisting degeneration

Abstract

Critical organization scholars have focused on the possibilities of cooperatives breaking away from the various deterministic and pessimistic degeneration laws of the past. This research contributes to this stream of literature by fleshing out a general theory of the degeneration threat. The lack of such a theory was abductively identified as a critical gap in the literature by the author who has a yearlong experience participating and researching the Worker Cooperatives' Network of Athens (WCNA). We argue that developing a general theory for the degeneration threat is critical for an enhanced understanding of the complexity of degeneration. To this end, conducting a processual analysis of WCNA attempts to resist degeneration using grounded theory techniques and abductively revisiting literature based on deviant/critical cases were considered a great fit for the task at hand. That is because they enabled the integration of various degeneration threats and theorizing their interrelations. In terms of implications, theory was developed that both better explains empirical phenomena and improves the ability to foresee the complexity of degeneration (threats).