Disclaimers, dichotomies and disappearances in international business textbooks: A postcolonial deconstruction

Abstract

In this article, we draw on a postcolonial sensibility to deconstruct how culture is discussed in mainstream international business textbooks. Through this deconstruction we show: (1) how the initial disclaimers that call for cultural sensitivity can be seen as pointing to the opposite of what they claim, which leads us to question the cultural sensitivity notion from ethical and political standpoints; (2) how the cultural dichotomies that form the core of the discussions always tend to silence the suppressed ‘other’ features on each side, which leads us to point to the much more ambivalent nature of culture and the hybrid spaces that can be created through cultural translation; (3) how (colonial) history is conspicuously absent from the arguments about ‘cultural’ underdevelopment and thus haunts the text. We conclude the article by suggesting the development of alternative types of international business textbook material on culture.