REFLECTING ON MANAGEMENT KNOWLEDGE IN INDIA: URGENCY TO CHANGE THE PARADIGM, DECOLONISE AND INDIGENISE IN THE AGE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Management research in India has been strongly impacted by paradigms from the natural sciences. This research approach largely facilitates the replication and extension of theories rather than the development of new theories. Further, most research in India is dominated by US-based theories, hindering the development of indigenous theories. This is an outcome of British impact on knowledge in India during the colonial era and US-driven neo-colonial influences on management knowledge in the post-colonial era. As a consequence, ‘Indian’ knowledge, particularly that available in English, is largely based on etic perspectives that provide an outsider view relying on apparently universal Euro/US-centric knowledge frameworks. This is dysfunctional as managerial interventions are likely to be based on knowledge that is at variance with the emic perspectives of those expected to implement or those affected by them. There is an urgency to correct the situation as new AI-based tools are changing the way knowledge is created, disseminated, and learnt. Unless there are sufficient and reliable indigenous and emic perspectives in the public domain to prevent ‘hallucination’, the future of management knowledge in India is bleak.