‘Pedagogy as Translation’: Extending the Horizons of Translation Theory

• Author: Peter Lamb,Shih‐wei Hsu,Anders Örtenblad
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ijmr.12098
• Date: 01 July 2016
• Published date: 01 July 2016

International Journal of Management Reviews, Vol. 18, 351–365 (2016)

DOI: 10.1111/ijmr.12098

‘Pedagogy as Translation’: Extending the

Horizons of Translation Theory

Peter Lamb, Anders ¨

Ortenblad1and Shih-wei Hsu

Nottingham University Business School, University of Nottingham, China Campus, 199 East Taikang Road,

University Park, Ningbo, 315100, China, and 1University of Nordland, Universitesaleen11, Bodø, Norway

Corresponding author email: peter.lamb@nottingham.edu.cn

This paper extends the horizons of scholarly work within the bounds of translation

theory by moving away from the tradition of presenting descriptive and historical ac-

counts of translation. It departs from this tradition by offering a guide for intentional

or rationally calculated translation applied to cross-cultural management learning. It

synthesizes key issues from translation theory with management learning literature,

which calls for more critically oriented and morecross-culturally sensitive pedagogy.It

then outlines a five-stage pedagogic translation process, termed ‘Pedagogy as Transla-

tion’ (PaT), which is designed to create the necessary space forstudents to develop and

extend their translation capacity.The paper also opens up scope for further exploration

into the conditions and scope of intentional and rationally calculated translation as a

pedagogic innovation within managementlearning, and more generally with respect to

knowledge transfer.

Introduction

Translation theory has become an important, if some-

what undervalued,extension to the diffusion school of

management and organization studies and the adop-

tion of management ideas and models (Sturdy 2004).

Its principal contribution has been to demonstrate

how managerial models, ideas and practices are trans-

lated rather than just simply adopted. In contrast

to the diffusion approach and its stress on isomor-

phism and homogeneity, proponents of translation

theory argue that management ideas are not fixed

physical objects, but are essentially transformable

constructs when in the hands of local actors (Cal-

lon 1986; Czarniawska 2008; Czarniawska and Jo-

erges 1996; Czarniawska and Sev´

on 1996; Latour

1986; Sahlin-Andersson 1996; Sahlin and Wedlin

2008). Despite the many valuable insights that have

emerged from translation theory, weperceive there is

a need to explore further how translation theory can be

extended.

The aims of this paper are twofold. First, weseek to

extend the horizons of translation theory by demon-

strating how it can be developedinto a pedagogic tool.

Second, we aim to demonstrate how the pedagogic

tool, drawing on what is termed ‘intentional transla-

tion or rationally calculated translation’ (Røvik 1998,

2000, 2007), can positively address issues in cross-

cultural management learning literature. Rationally

calculated translation refers to a process by which a

model or idea is consciously assessed and translated

for a context that may be different from the model or

idea’s original context (Røvik 1998, 2007, 2011). Our

guide therefore departs from conceptions of trans-

lation that stress the less deliberate nature thereof

(Røvik 2011).

Weconstr uct a guide to rationallycalculated trans-

lation (Røvik 1998, 2007, 2011; Hong 2012) by

synthesizing some important themes and dimensions

from translation theory with the cross-cultural man-

agement learning literature (Currie 2007; Joy and

Poonamallee 2013; Mellahi 2000; ¨

Ortenblad et al.

2012), along with literature on critical management

education (Dehler et al. 2001).

The contributions of this paper connect to two au-

diences: translation theory and cross-cultural man-

agement learning. The contributions of this paper are

fourfold: (i) we extend the scope of translation theory

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