The Naked Manager: The Ethical Practice of an Anti-establishment Boss

    Publikation: Bidrag til tidsskriftTidsskriftartikelForskningpeer review

    Abstract

    This article explores how an allegedly ‘non-hierarchical’ and aestheticized managerial practice reconfigures power relations within a creative industry. The key problematic is ‘governmental’ in the sense suggested by Michel Foucault, in as much as the manager’s ethical self-practice—which involves expressive and ‘liberated’ bodily comportment—is used tactically to shape the space of conduct of others in the company. The study foregrounds the managerial body as ‘signifier’ in its own right. Empirically, this is done through an analysis of video material produced by the film company Zentropa about their apparently eccentric Managing Director, Peter Aalbæk. Contrary to much of the literature discussing embodiment and ethics in organization studies, we do not identify an ‘ethics of organization’ dominated by instrumental rationality, efficiency and desire for profit which is ostensibly juxtaposed to a non-alienating, embodied ethics. Rather, when the body becomes invested in management, we observe tensions, tactics of domination and unpredictability.
    OriginalsprogEngelsk
    TidsskriftOrganization
    Vol/bind22
    Udgave nummer2
    Sider (fra-til)251-268
    Antal sider18
    ISSN1350-5084
    DOI
    StatusUdgivet - 2015

    Emneord

    • Body
    • Ceremony
    • Creative industries
    • Film
    • Organizational aesthetics
    • Power
    • Zentropa

    Citationsformater