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Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the critical management literature through a fusion of Latin and North American lenses (one author is from Argentina and one from Canada), to question the extant women in management literature, which is rooted in an epistemology that serves to construct the notion of a broad, universal set of expectations of the role of men, women and managers, in which other ethnic groups, in this case men and women from so-called Latin American countries, are taken for granted.Design/methodology/approach– Using a critical sensemaking lens, the paper explores the narratives of female executives in Argentina to help us understand how these women make sense of their careers within a Latin American context and the implications and outcomes of this understanding. The paper's approach involves three interrelated elements – feminist poststructuralism, postcolonialism and critical sensemaking.Findings– The narratives from the Argentinian executives reveals the tension between different cultures and idiosyncrasies among countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Mexico; and that the way to navigate those differences entails understanding and learning about the other. These executive women from Argentina – las jefas – are heard mainly because they represent the managerial identity that multi-national corporations foster in any overseas branch.Research limitations/implications– In terms of the data used in this study, the paper acknowledges that this is an exploratory study that allows us to access women's stories from a pre-existing source. The paper recognizes that the authors are limited by the texts that are secondary sources, and if the authors had been able to conduct the interviews themselves they might have asked different questions.Practical implications– The findings of this research can help organizations to develop and implement a pluriversal and inclusive equity training programme through and awareness of the sensemaking of those involved.Originality/value– The use of a critical framework on postcolonialism, feminism and postructuralism together with critical sensemaking to understand female executives from the South of America.

Textbooks are an important element in teaching management in higher education because of their assumed ability to disseminate key theories and debates in a seemingly objective fashion. However, a number of studies have questioned not only the scientific character of the textbook but also of management theory itself. More recent studies suggest that dominant notions of management theory in North America were shaped by the Cold War context. In this article, we examine the influence of sociopolitical context on the development of management textbooks in North America. In seeking a more nuanced approach to sociopolitical context that takes into account cross-cultural differences, we undertook a critical hermeneutic analysis on two sets of Cold War–era textbooks, one from the United States and another from Canada. We looked for important differences in how Cold War narratives are reproduced. Canadian textbooks were more likely to legitimize noncapitalist forms of organization, to allow for a more positive role for government, and to discuss communism and socialism more seriously and thoroughly. We argue that these differences are attributable to the divergent political context found in Canada during the Cold War era. The significance of this article is to recognize that discourses change geographically on a scale much smaller than anticipated.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the role of history in the creation of gender dynamics at work.Design/methodology/approachDrawing on an ANTi‐history – which draws on actor‐network theory (ANT) – and critical sensemaking framework, the authors analyze a written history of a teachers' union to examine how historically contextualized networks of actors shape notions of gender.FindingsThe findings support the notion of history as socially constructed story telling, which serves to shape rather than describe gendered relations at work.Research limitations/implicationsThe research is limited to archival materials as the participants are not available as direct informants. Archives by their nature are incomplete and some accounts are summaries.Practical implicationsUnderstanding the socially constructed role of history will help management educators and practitioners to examine historical accounts as part of the problem of gendered relations. The paper reinforces the notion that understanding of discrimination may be lost as power imbalances are written out of historical accounts in the attempt to be politically correct.Originality/valueThe paper's contribution to research lies in its application of new methods of historical analysis (namely, ANTi‐history and critical sensemaking) and a focus on history as a powerful sensemaking device that shapes on‐going sensemaking.

The aim of this article is contributing to a great variety of theoretical perspectives and empirical settings to generate cumulative evidence about the influence of historical legacies and organisational ability for managing the past. In a continuation of critical perspectives that challenges the dominance of Anglo-Saxon onto-epistemologies in management and organisation studies (MOS), we conducted an empirical study on a multinational airline company whose past successes depended on the North/South, Anglo/Latin American borderlands. We analysed the grand narratives of Pan American Airways' (PAA) corporate archival material to determine its dominant discourses about people from Latin America. Based on the three themes of politics, economics, and culture, we present three grand narratives, or official stories, that we argue summarise PAA storytelling about Latin America between 1927 and 1960. Following decolonial feminism, we aim to recontextualise the past and the hegemonic storytelling embedded in PAA's grand narratives. ; peerReviewed

The aim of this article is contributing to a great variety of theoretical perspectives and empirical settings to generate cumulative evidence about the influence of historical legacies and organizational ability for managing the past. In a continuation of critical perspectives that challenges the dominance of Anglo-Saxon onto-epistemologies in management and organization studies (MOS), we conducted an empirical study on a multinational airline company whose past successes depended on the North/South, Anglo/Latin American borderlands. We analyzed the grand narratives of Pan American Airways' (PAA) corporate archival material to determine its dominant discourses about people from Latin America. Based on the three themes of politics, economics, and culture, we present three grand narratives, or official stories, that we argue summaries PAA storytelling about Latin America between 1927 and 1960. Following decolonial feminism, we aim to recontextualize the past and the hegemonic storytelling embedded in PAA's grand narratives. ; El objetivo de este artículo es contribuir a una gran variedad de perspectivas teóricas y escenarios empíricos para generar evidencia acumulada sobre la influencia de los legados históricos y la capacidad organizativa para gestionar el pasado. Continuando con la perspectiva crítica que desafía el dominio de las epistemologías anglosajonas en los estudios de gestión y organizaciones, realizamos un estudio empírico sobre una aerolínea multinacional cuyos éxitos pasados dependieron de las fronteras Norte/Sur; anglo-latinoamericanas. Analizamos las grandes narrativas del material de archivo corporativo de Pan American Airways (PAA) para establecer discursos dominantes sobre las personas de América Latina. Sobre la base de tres temas: política, economía y cultura, desarrollamos tres grandes narrativas o historias oficiales que argumentamos son un resumen de la narrativa de PAA sobre América Latina entre 1927 y 1960. Utilizando el marco teórico del feminismo decolonial, nuestro objetivo es recontextualizar el pasado y la narración hegemónica incrustada en las grandes narrativas de PAA. ; O objetivo deste artigo é contribuir para uma grande variedade de perspectivas teóricas e configurações empíricas para gerar evidências cumulativas sobre a influência de legados históricos e capacidade organizacional para gerenciar o passado. Continuando com a perspectiva crítica que desafia o domínio das epistemologias anglo-saxônicas nos estudos de gestão e organização, realizamos um estudo empírico sobre uma companhia aérea multinacional cujos sucessos passados dependiam das fronteiras norte/sul anglo-latino-americanas. Analisamos as grandes narrativas da Pan American Airways (PAA) a partir dos arquivos corporativos da empresa a fim de determinar quais os discursos dominantes acerca daspessoas da América Latina. Com base nos temas: política, economia e cultura, apresentamos três grandes narrativas, ou histórias oficiais, que sumariam os discursos da PAA acerca da América Latina entre 1927 e 1960. A partir do feminismo decolonial, buscamos recontextualizar o passado e o discurso hegemônico incorporado nas grandes narrativas do PAA.

PurposeJoan Acker proposed her gendered theory of organization as a framework to analyze organizations and to understand how gender underlies organizational structure in such a way as to subordinate women. Much of the previous work that has utilized this framework has examined highly (male‐) gendered organizations. This archival case study aims to use Acker's framework to examine a purportedly female‐gendered organization – the 1970s feminist organization, Stewardesses for Women's Rights (SFWR).Design/methodology/approachUsing these archived materials, this paper uses a critical hermeneutic approach across Acker's framework of gendered organization to make sense of the rise and fall of SFWR. The paper discusses lessons learned from this short‐lived organization.FindingsThe paper finds that societal pressure and organizing women's understanding of what is "real" and valued in an organization pushed them to create an organization that was as highly (male) gendered as the organizations from which they were escaping. Many in the organization never saw SFWR as a "real" organization because of the underlying organizational logic that was directing what the organization should be. Even if the organization did, on the surface, look different than other explicitly male‐gendered organizations, the same underlying organizational logic manifested itself in similar organizational structure.Originality/valueThis archival case study uses Acker's framework to examine a purportedly female‐gendered organization – the 1970s feminist organization SFWR and reveals lessons learned.