Environmental sustainability and management theory development: Post-paradigm insights from the Anthropocene

Abstract

Given a looming crisis of environmental degradation, this conceptual review revisits certain long-standing assumptions informing the development of management theory. Specifically, we problematise seminal notions of paradigm differentiation at the heart of Burrell and Morgan's theory of paradigms by arguing that assumptions of paradigm incommensurability amount to abdication of a responsibility to consider cross-cutting existential imperatives. In developing the concept of epistemological panarchy, we build on some ideas of stakeholder theory to suggest a research agenda concerned with developing an improved meta-epistemology aligned with concerns of environmental sustainability.