Drawing on data collected during 14-months of ethnographic research in an Australian Coastal Hote... more Drawing on data collected during 14-months of ethnographic research in an Australian Coastal Hotel, the paper describes the management of service encounters.
George Cheney is concerned with one of the most important issues facing those interested in organ... more George Cheney is concerned with one of the most important issues facing those interested in organizing in the present age. Can alternatives to market managerial organization survive and prosper? It is common enough nowadays to assume that the 'convergence thesis' of the 1960s has developed into fully blown globalization. Whether economic or cultural, the idea is that one best way of organizing has emerged and is (and also should be) spreading across the world. Rabid managerialists and vapid politicians seem to agree on this ...
). This is a big fat hardback book, priced at£ 85. This alone should tell us rather a lot about t... more ). This is a big fat hardback book, priced at£ 85. This alone should tell us rather a lot about the production and consumption of its knowledge. Unless paperbacked, it is doomed to be bought only by university libraries, and hence invisible to most readers, apart from the red eyed scholars who snuffle around in the half light. Perhaps this is the fate of critical projects in many disciplines–whether in management, policy studies, law, criminology or wherever. They finally become 'Oxford Handbooks', and then the game is up, crushed beneath the ...
What follows is a dialogue, in the Platonic sense, concerning the justifications for "business et... more What follows is a dialogue, in the Platonic sense, concerning the justifications for "business ethics" as a vehicle for asking questions about the values of modern business organisations. The protagonists are the authors, Gordon Pearson – a pragmatist and sceptic where business ethics is concerned – and Martin Parker – a sociologist and idealist who wishes to be able to ask ethical questions of business. By the end of the dialogue we come to no agreement on the necessity or justification for business ethics, but on the way discuss the uses of philosophy, the meanings of integrity and trust, McDonald's, a hypothetical torture manufacturer and various other matters.
Critical Perspectives on International Business, 2007
Purpose - The article aims to provoke debate about the organizational implications of internation... more Purpose - The article aims to provoke debate about the organizational implications of international business. Design/methodology/approach - This is a conceptual argument relying on elements of social theory and contemporary politics. Findings - The paper finds that organizing is not a synonym for hierarchy, management or markets, though they are all examples of organization. Practical implications - The implication for research and practice is exploring alternatives to hierarchical market managerialism. Originality/value - Many ...
In this article the mundanity of contemporary cyberspace will be contrasted with the technologica... more In this article the mundanity of contemporary cyberspace will be contrasted with the technological sublime of the space programme, now almost 40 years ago. Using some short stories from JG Ballard, I explore the idea that contemporary forms of 'space', usually prefigured as 'cyber'or 'virtual', are insular and privatized in comparison to Apollo. To a certain extent, this contraction of ambition can also be witnessed in contemporary cyberpunk science fiction, and in the combination of capitalist and conspiratorial narratives about ...
This dialogue engages with the ethics of politics of capitalism, and enacts a debate between two ... more This dialogue engages with the ethics of politics of capitalism, and enacts a debate between two participants who have divergent views on these matters. Beginning with a discussion concerning definitions of capitalism, it moves on to cover issues concerning our different understandings of the costs and benefits of global capitalist systems. This then leads into a debate about the nature and purposes of regulation, in terms of whether regulation is intended to make competition work better for consumers, or to prevent negative outcomes for citizens. The conclusion speculates about the usefulness or otherwise of this Socratic method of dialogue.
Critical Perspectives on International Business, 2006
Purpose–The purpose of this paper is to explore the production of management knowledge in Argenti... more Purpose–The purpose of this paper is to explore the production of management knowledge in Argentina. Design/methodology/approach–Based on a qualitative research strategy that draws on one of the authors' participant observation in the field of Argentine management education, selected data from Argentine universities, and a bibliometric study of local and foreign management journals.
This paper contrasts the standard account of the relationship between containerisation and global... more This paper contrasts the standard account of the relationship between containerisation and globalisation with a picture of multiple mobilities and moorings. I suggest that an account of containerisation cannot so easily be contained because sameness, security, plenty and economic rationality have also produced the aporias of difference, danger and emptiness as well as a diverse range of cultural representations. I take this to be a specific representation of a more general argument against the reduction in complex social and material mobilities to a determinist account of technology or a teleological version of history.
Abstract This article presents a reading of the place of food in a variety of texts which concern... more Abstract This article presents a reading of the place of food in a variety of texts which concern the Mafia. In many organizations, food often seems to be symbolically deployed as a representation of community through commensality. However, in the Mafia, unlike many contemporary organizations, food preparation and consumption appears not to be relegated to liminal times and spaces, but to be a central part of being a Mafiosi. The article explores this idea in terms of the connections between metaphors of community and family in the ...
This paper presents a case study of management culture in a manufacturing organisation. Its gener... more This paper presents a case study of management culture in a manufacturing organisation. Its general aim is to assess the usefulness of the concept ‘culture’ as it applies to organisations. After first establishing that the organisational members had a sense that their organisation was an unique ‘family’ the article then proceeds to argue that this ‘togetherness’ was, in many contexts, divided. Managers also had a series of conflictual orientations to other members that were partially defined by the managers organisational role but were also underwritten by assumptions about organisational history, community, biography and profession. The paper concludes by suggesting that, at this level of analysis, managers are not often an unified block with a common identity and that management culture is hence best seen as a map of oppositions and commonalities that reflects the wider culture that the organisation is a part of.
This paper is concerned with the theoretical and ethical-political implications of thinking about... more This paper is concerned with the theoretical and ethical-political implications of thinking about organisations as communities, and community as organised. After outlining some of the recent managerialist attempts to articulate organisations as sites of common culture the paper proceeds to make analytic distinctions between society/community and state/organisation. I suggest that both of these poles are ideal types which are better thought of as two empirically unrealisable ends of a continuum of subjective identification and ...
If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emeral... more If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information.
Abstract Much contemporary writing on organizational culture overstresses consensus. Using a case... more Abstract Much contemporary writing on organizational culture overstresses consensus. Using a case study of a UK National Health Service district, it is suggested that there can be distinctframes of meaning within one organization. Managers' ideas about creating a unified culture were reflective of an attempt to move from medical dominance to a managerialist orientation, but this change was the subject of considerable dispute. There was debate about whether management was appropriate to an organization that had traditionally ...
This article is comprised of autobiographical reflections on becoming the head of a management de... more This article is comprised of autobiographical reflections on becoming the head of a management department in a small English university. I assume that being a manager is not an identity or occupation that is ever finished or fully occupied, and hence the article is structured as a series of confessions, reflexive conversations and interruptions. The main themes of the article are the fragmented character of managerial work, the changing relations between self and colleagues, and the seductions of power, centrality and speed. I conclude with some observations on the relationship between a critical management academic identity and managerial practice. Key Words: becoming; critical management studies; management practice; reflexivity As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. He was lying on his hard, as it were armourplated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his domelike brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly stay in place and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes. (Franz Kafka, 1916, The Metamorphosis)
Abstract This introduction to the special issue consists of some arguments that are intended to f... more Abstract This introduction to the special issue consists of some arguments that are intended to fold the conceptsethics' andpolitics' into one another. The aim of this exercise is to take business ethics to task for having a narrowlyethical'view of its ambitions. Instead, I propose that business ethics needs to embrace political theory in addition to the moral philosophy that it has (up to now) treated as canonical. I argue that such an enlargement will encourage those who currently practise business ethics to ask broader questions about the current ...
This article makes connections between`queer' theory and contemporary thinking about management a... more This article makes connections between`queer' theory and contemporary thinking about management and organization. The article contains a re-presentation of queer, particularly the work of Butler and Sedgwick, and a discussion of the potential implications of queering for managers, managerial practices and the science of management. Most importantly, the article is also concerned with authority claims Ð both personal and institutional Ð and the relationship between (critical) theory and (critical) practice.
Drawing on data collected during 14-months of ethnographic research in an Australian Coastal Hote... more Drawing on data collected during 14-months of ethnographic research in an Australian Coastal Hotel, the paper describes the management of service encounters.
George Cheney is concerned with one of the most important issues facing those interested in organ... more George Cheney is concerned with one of the most important issues facing those interested in organizing in the present age. Can alternatives to market managerial organization survive and prosper? It is common enough nowadays to assume that the 'convergence thesis' of the 1960s has developed into fully blown globalization. Whether economic or cultural, the idea is that one best way of organizing has emerged and is (and also should be) spreading across the world. Rabid managerialists and vapid politicians seem to agree on this ...
). This is a big fat hardback book, priced at£ 85. This alone should tell us rather a lot about t... more ). This is a big fat hardback book, priced at£ 85. This alone should tell us rather a lot about the production and consumption of its knowledge. Unless paperbacked, it is doomed to be bought only by university libraries, and hence invisible to most readers, apart from the red eyed scholars who snuffle around in the half light. Perhaps this is the fate of critical projects in many disciplines–whether in management, policy studies, law, criminology or wherever. They finally become 'Oxford Handbooks', and then the game is up, crushed beneath the ...
What follows is a dialogue, in the Platonic sense, concerning the justifications for "business et... more What follows is a dialogue, in the Platonic sense, concerning the justifications for "business ethics" as a vehicle for asking questions about the values of modern business organisations. The protagonists are the authors, Gordon Pearson – a pragmatist and sceptic where business ethics is concerned – and Martin Parker – a sociologist and idealist who wishes to be able to ask ethical questions of business. By the end of the dialogue we come to no agreement on the necessity or justification for business ethics, but on the way discuss the uses of philosophy, the meanings of integrity and trust, McDonald's, a hypothetical torture manufacturer and various other matters.
Critical Perspectives on International Business, 2007
Purpose - The article aims to provoke debate about the organizational implications of internation... more Purpose - The article aims to provoke debate about the organizational implications of international business. Design/methodology/approach - This is a conceptual argument relying on elements of social theory and contemporary politics. Findings - The paper finds that organizing is not a synonym for hierarchy, management or markets, though they are all examples of organization. Practical implications - The implication for research and practice is exploring alternatives to hierarchical market managerialism. Originality/value - Many ...
In this article the mundanity of contemporary cyberspace will be contrasted with the technologica... more In this article the mundanity of contemporary cyberspace will be contrasted with the technological sublime of the space programme, now almost 40 years ago. Using some short stories from JG Ballard, I explore the idea that contemporary forms of 'space', usually prefigured as 'cyber'or 'virtual', are insular and privatized in comparison to Apollo. To a certain extent, this contraction of ambition can also be witnessed in contemporary cyberpunk science fiction, and in the combination of capitalist and conspiratorial narratives about ...
This dialogue engages with the ethics of politics of capitalism, and enacts a debate between two ... more This dialogue engages with the ethics of politics of capitalism, and enacts a debate between two participants who have divergent views on these matters. Beginning with a discussion concerning definitions of capitalism, it moves on to cover issues concerning our different understandings of the costs and benefits of global capitalist systems. This then leads into a debate about the nature and purposes of regulation, in terms of whether regulation is intended to make competition work better for consumers, or to prevent negative outcomes for citizens. The conclusion speculates about the usefulness or otherwise of this Socratic method of dialogue.
Critical Perspectives on International Business, 2006
Purpose–The purpose of this paper is to explore the production of management knowledge in Argenti... more Purpose–The purpose of this paper is to explore the production of management knowledge in Argentina. Design/methodology/approach–Based on a qualitative research strategy that draws on one of the authors' participant observation in the field of Argentine management education, selected data from Argentine universities, and a bibliometric study of local and foreign management journals.
This paper contrasts the standard account of the relationship between containerisation and global... more This paper contrasts the standard account of the relationship between containerisation and globalisation with a picture of multiple mobilities and moorings. I suggest that an account of containerisation cannot so easily be contained because sameness, security, plenty and economic rationality have also produced the aporias of difference, danger and emptiness as well as a diverse range of cultural representations. I take this to be a specific representation of a more general argument against the reduction in complex social and material mobilities to a determinist account of technology or a teleological version of history.
Abstract This article presents a reading of the place of food in a variety of texts which concern... more Abstract This article presents a reading of the place of food in a variety of texts which concern the Mafia. In many organizations, food often seems to be symbolically deployed as a representation of community through commensality. However, in the Mafia, unlike many contemporary organizations, food preparation and consumption appears not to be relegated to liminal times and spaces, but to be a central part of being a Mafiosi. The article explores this idea in terms of the connections between metaphors of community and family in the ...
This paper presents a case study of management culture in a manufacturing organisation. Its gener... more This paper presents a case study of management culture in a manufacturing organisation. Its general aim is to assess the usefulness of the concept ‘culture’ as it applies to organisations. After first establishing that the organisational members had a sense that their organisation was an unique ‘family’ the article then proceeds to argue that this ‘togetherness’ was, in many contexts, divided. Managers also had a series of conflictual orientations to other members that were partially defined by the managers organisational role but were also underwritten by assumptions about organisational history, community, biography and profession. The paper concludes by suggesting that, at this level of analysis, managers are not often an unified block with a common identity and that management culture is hence best seen as a map of oppositions and commonalities that reflects the wider culture that the organisation is a part of.
This paper is concerned with the theoretical and ethical-political implications of thinking about... more This paper is concerned with the theoretical and ethical-political implications of thinking about organisations as communities, and community as organised. After outlining some of the recent managerialist attempts to articulate organisations as sites of common culture the paper proceeds to make analytic distinctions between society/community and state/organisation. I suggest that both of these poles are ideal types which are better thought of as two empirically unrealisable ends of a continuum of subjective identification and ...
If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emeral... more If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information.
Abstract Much contemporary writing on organizational culture overstresses consensus. Using a case... more Abstract Much contemporary writing on organizational culture overstresses consensus. Using a case study of a UK National Health Service district, it is suggested that there can be distinctframes of meaning within one organization. Managers' ideas about creating a unified culture were reflective of an attempt to move from medical dominance to a managerialist orientation, but this change was the subject of considerable dispute. There was debate about whether management was appropriate to an organization that had traditionally ...
This article is comprised of autobiographical reflections on becoming the head of a management de... more This article is comprised of autobiographical reflections on becoming the head of a management department in a small English university. I assume that being a manager is not an identity or occupation that is ever finished or fully occupied, and hence the article is structured as a series of confessions, reflexive conversations and interruptions. The main themes of the article are the fragmented character of managerial work, the changing relations between self and colleagues, and the seductions of power, centrality and speed. I conclude with some observations on the relationship between a critical management academic identity and managerial practice. Key Words: becoming; critical management studies; management practice; reflexivity As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. He was lying on his hard, as it were armourplated, back and when he lifted his head a little he could see his domelike brown belly divided into stiff arched segments on top of which the bed quilt could hardly stay in place and was about to slide off completely. His numerous legs, which were pitifully thin compared to the rest of his bulk, waved helplessly before his eyes. (Franz Kafka, 1916, The Metamorphosis)
Abstract This introduction to the special issue consists of some arguments that are intended to f... more Abstract This introduction to the special issue consists of some arguments that are intended to fold the conceptsethics' andpolitics' into one another. The aim of this exercise is to take business ethics to task for having a narrowlyethical'view of its ambitions. Instead, I propose that business ethics needs to embrace political theory in addition to the moral philosophy that it has (up to now) treated as canonical. I argue that such an enlargement will encourage those who currently practise business ethics to ask broader questions about the current ...
This article makes connections between`queer' theory and contemporary thinking about management a... more This article makes connections between`queer' theory and contemporary thinking about management and organization. The article contains a re-presentation of queer, particularly the work of Butler and Sedgwick, and a discussion of the potential implications of queering for managers, managerial practices and the science of management. Most importantly, the article is also concerned with authority claims Ð both personal and institutional Ð and the relationship between (critical) theory and (critical) practice.
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Papers by Martin Parker