Introduction

Welcome to the Dark Side 3: Critical Cases on the Downside of Business . The series has its roots in an Academy of Management ‘Dark Side Case Writing Competition’ that was established in 2001 by the Critical Management Studies (CMS) Interest Group in conjunction with the Management Education Division (MED). The initial idea was to develop cases that encouraged students and faculty to take a critical look at how we understand business organizations in a capitalist society. In particular, the Dark Side Case Competition set out to counter mainstream cases that looked at best practices and focused on bottom-line outcomes, mostly from the unique perspective of one set of stakeholders (e.g., owners) at great expense to other stakeholders (e.g., workers or local communities).