The Social Construction of Management

What is management and how do the people who become managers take on a managerial identity? How does text inform the manager's identity? From cultural studies we understand that the relationship between text and reader is not passive but that each works upon the other and that text is active in forming the identity of the reader. However, analysis of management textbooks published since the 1950s reveals that textboks construct a world in which chaos is kept at bay only by strong management and in which strong management is based upon the rationality of modernity. This book exposes and analyses such claims-to-truths and theorises their arguments using the work of Butler and Foucault, the sociology of scientific knowledge, crtical legal studies, art history and queer theory. By revealing the post-modern turn in these texts,The Social Construction of Managementis both a critical and empirical study that explores the constitution of managerial identities in the age of masseducation in management. An exciting contribution to the growing body of knowledge within critical management studies, this book challenges the way we think about organizations and their management, and about management education as a whole. This is thought provoking reading for anyone studying management or working int he managerial organization.

Nancy Harding is Senior Lecturer in Management at the Nuffield Institute at the University of Leeds.