Abstract

Originated by Paul Adler, paleo-Marxism represents the fullest engagement with Marx's work by a management scholar in the American milieu. As the pinnacle of Marxist thinking within Critical Management Studies, paleo-Marxism merits critical attention. By focusing on technological change, Adler aims to overcome contemporary poststructuralist labor process theory's subjectivism. When subjected to a fine-grained analysis, however, paleo-Marxism is revealed to be equally deficient. Adler compounds the labor process theorists' neglect of Marx's discoveries about how capital is valorized; he prioritizes the subjective matter of recognition at the expense of redistribution; and he fails to explain adequately the crisis potential of technical progress. Only a wholly new Marxist version of Critical Management Studies, one with a "crisis sites" model at its core, can surmount paleo-Marxism's inherent weaknesses