Fascism is a political ideology, but it is also intimately linked to management styles, organizational cultures, companies’ non-market strategies, and the societal role of entrepreneurs. If management philosophy is understood as a set of reflected rules and implicit approaches that affect how a manager makes decisions, then Fascism is in fact a management philosophy, too. Given that we live in an age of global democratic retreat, it is time we took the concept seriously and discussed its various forms (typologies) and underlying conceptualizations from a contemporary perspective. Thus far, various elements of Fascist and post-Fascist politics in contemporary organizational and managements cultures have been discussed in the literature, e.g. the rise of patriarchal attitudes, autocratic leadership styles, the dismissal of pluralist ethics, the backlash against diversity and inclusion policies, and the return of ultra-nationalist narratives. Rarely, however, are these elements brought together. To stimulate a reckoning with the influence of recent political developments on management and organizational research, this panel symposium will engage a group of panelists in a moderated and interactive discussion of what a conceptualization of Fascism might mean for our understanding of contemporary management philosophy as a scholarly field, but also for management strategy, and for the field of management teaching and learning.
