Denaturalization of the Functionalistic Paradigm in the Epistemology of Management Sciences. A Perspective of Critical Management Studies

In this article, the author pursues the critical analysis of popular Gibson Burrell’s and Gareth Morgan’s paradigmatic division in the management sciences, using the perspective of Critical Management Studies, including the Habermasian concept of knowledge interests. It makes it possible to denaturalize the functionalist paradigm and show that functionalist assumptions have a negative impact on the organizational humanism. Using the example of the concept of organizational culture it is shown that the functionalist orientation in management leads to the legitimization of instrumental rationality and reification of a human and ignores the deeper dimension of the organization as an area of the construction of senses and meanings.