Decolonizing Authenticity

Abstract

In this review, we critically examine the concept of authenticity by reorienting scholarly attention to the South and historical structures of power. Existing accounts follow a Northern- and agency-centric line of reasoning that present a sanitized version of authenticity. This needs to be criticized due to its dangerous potential to simplify the social complexity of the South. To do so, we review 29 articles across leading business and management journals following a problematization methodology. We identified four current underlying assumptions: authenticity is socially constructed, it has a recursive relationship with institutions, it provides organizational benefits, and its examination is guided by an instrumental logic. Drawing on Critical Management Studies, we propose four new assumptions for former Western European colonies in the South: authenticity is orchestrated by local elites, it has a recursive relationship with dominant ideologies, it is a tool for indigenous oppression, and it is guided by a decolonizing logic. From this, we make two main contributions to the literature: we reveal that claims of authenticity made by local elites can act as carriers of coloniality and, on a positive note, we suggest the potential of authenticity claims as a resource to enable the agency of oppressed groups and challenge dominant ideologies that inform coloniality. Taken together, these contributions inform the concept of decolonizing authenticity.