Initiating Question About the Dominant Story of Global   2022 Latest Answers  

Development  

The system of global economic development based on the coming together of democratic and capitalist principles has been attributed by their advocates as the source  

of much wealth, the alleviation of much poverty, and the uniting of nations through  

the promotion of individual freedom . The story such advocates tell is one of a  

declared shared interest in freedom. It is a story of equal opportunities as justice.  

They advocate for universal inclusion in the means to just livelihoods. It is a story  

about social and political stability that is to be defended by just wars, political interventions in geopolitics areas of interest, and the strengthening of police powers to  

quell inappropriate disturbances of the peace. This mode of development however,  

has a dark side. This dark side includes the growing disparity of wealth and infl uence within and across nations and the systemically generated environmental degradation that puts the well-being of people and planet at risk. These worrying trends  

are recognized by global institutions such as the United Nations, the G7, and many  

corporate leaders. These trends have also found discussion in the more recent  

themes of the Academy of Management, the leading professional body for management researchers in Anglophone nations. 2

Despite signifi cant agreement about the dangers of the prevailing form of globalization , the many calls for drastic action, and much investment in technologies for  

change, the predominant trajectory of global development seems not to be transforming for the better the systemically generated social and environmental degradation and the insecurity this degradation generates. We explore our understanding of  

paradox and contradiction in the model of global development that advocates freedom and prosperity for all yet degrades so much. We suggest that the kind of leadership that has prevailed—particularly as conceived of and taught in western-orientated  

business schools—remains deeply committed to the service to The Economy with  

vestiges of Patriarchy perhaps under pressure but not erased.