The Manager's Tale: Stories of Managerial Identity

The key questions this book considers are:- What does it feel like to be a manager and why is being a manager such an attractive identity for so many people?- How does pursuing a managerial career fit with the wider project of constructing a life?- How do management careers relate to the economic and social history of the post-war period?- Are there alternative and more interesting ways of understanding what it is to be a manager than those that currently dominate thinking in this area?The book is built around the extended life histories of ten managers. An empathetic approach to these manager's lives is sought so that their own voices are heard.A broadly existentialist approach is utilised to make sense of the manager's stories. The ideas of Heidegger, Sartre and Ricoeur are discussed and deployed to show that who a person is can be seen as resulting from stories we tell ourselves and others. Within the framework the manager's stories are considered in two ways - as a collective tale of a particular group during a specific time and as folklore. The latter interpretation highlights the way in which the dominant expectations of what it means to be a successful individual in the modern world determine what sort of person we strive to be. Throughout the need to understand management work and careers from the inside is emphasised.