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Cultural Control and the `Culture Manager': Employment Practices in a Consultancy

Author

Listed:
  • Irena Grugulis

    (Manchester School of Management UMIST PO Box 88 MANCHESTER M60 1 QD)

  • Tony Dundon

    (Manchester School of Management UMIST PO Box 88 MANCHESTER M60 1 QD)

  • Adrian Wilkinson

    (Manchester School of Management UMIST PO Box 88 MANCHESTER M60 1 QD)

Abstract

This article explores the use of `company culture' as a means of management control. It reports on research conducted in a consultancy that aimed to secure loyalty from its employees through a conscious policy of organised `play' at company socials. Employees were given a certain amount of freedom over their working lives in exchange for accepting company regulation of their social time. Here it is argued that this normative control differs from historical attempts to ensure that employees were of good moral character. In earlier interventions social and community obligations were emphasised, now every `virtue' encouraged is designed to be exercised in the workplace, often at the expense of the individual or the community. Further, that while control through organisational culture does have some of the advantages claimed for it in the prescriptive literature, it also extends the employment contract to areas previously outside the managerial prerogative.

Suggested Citation

  • Irena Grugulis & Tony Dundon & Adrian Wilkinson, 2000. "Cultural Control and the `Culture Manager': Employment Practices in a Consultancy," Work, Employment & Society, British Sociological Association, vol. 14(1), pages 97-116, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:woemps:v:14:y:2000:i:1:p:97-116
    DOI: 10.1177/09500170022118284
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Peter, Diane Ackers Preston, 1997. "Born Again? The Ethics and Efficacy of the Conversion Experience in Contemporary Management Development," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(5), pages 677-701, September.
    2. Hugh Willmott, 1993. "Strength Is Ignorance; Slavery Is Freedom: Managing Culture In Modern Organizations," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 515-552, July.
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