Looking for Joan of Arc: Collaboration in the Rise and Fall of Heroes

Abstract

This article adapts Actor Network Theory to illustrate the construction of heroes and their abandonment. It focuses more specifically on the rise and fall of an iconic New Zealand private training enterprise, Carich, and its founding entrepreneur Caron Taurima. Drawing on media, web sources and interviews, the study reflects on the uncritical way heroes are constructed and makes comparisons with the story of Joan of Arc. It shows how the notion of ‘Carich‐as‐a‐successful‐business’ was encouraged and developed by human and non‐human actors, how revenues were inflated, and how the business founder’s personal charisma superseded hard financial questions. The article problematizes the roles of various actors, particularly hero‐seeking media, politically‐correct Crown agencies, and those supposedly objective umpires of business acumen who offer national awards to ‘outstanding’ entrepreneurs.

Key words:

• Heroes
• Actor Network Theory
• Historical Analogy

Notes

1. We acknowledge the discussion among its proponents as to whether Actor Network Theory is something different from ANT and whether there should or should not be a hyphen included between the first of the two terms, but we have chosen to ignore it for the purposes of this article which is to suggest the applicability of the theory to a different organizational phenomenon rather than to debate its finer points.

2. Some evidence suggests New Zealanders support and celebrate sporting heroes ahead of business heroes. About one‐third of 1001 people interviewed in a commissioned study believed it was not appropriate to celebrate business success, preferring successful business people to remain modest about their achievements; however 94% reported admiring people who take a risk and start their own business (Industry New Zealand, 2002).

3. See, for example, Law and Hassard’s (1999) edited book, Actor‐network Theory and After, and the introduction and four articles in a 1999 special issue of the journal Organization (6(3)).

4. Given these sources relate most obviously to the focal case, rather than extend exhaustively to all participants in the network, we were unable to frame our analysis in terms of the particular relations between all members of what Law and Callon (1992) describe as the global network. We note this limitation in our own work and commend others thinking about an ANT approach to consider the possibility of this wider framing as more indicative of network relations and effects.

5. This case study and accompanying teaching note was awarded a finalist place in the Academy of Management Critical Management Studies Interest Group and Management Education Division Dark Side III case‐writing competition in August 2004.

6. The media attention given to Caron Taurima and Carich, while it provides us with a rich data source, can also qualify it as an extreme case which, it could be argued, does not merit such generalization. We contend that while a more extreme case where network effects are more visible might possibly serve our own interests in offering an interesting spectacle for publication, network effects are likely to be present and remain potent in other cases where scrutiny is less likely to extend, and could be researched via other means. In the present case, the media is shown to be a powerful actor in the fact‐creating network.

7. Former staff who were interviewed thought the facilities were good but under‐used. Student attendance was very poor and the standard of education was judged to be low (Interview, 7 April 2004).

8. The survey reported in note 2 above also found that ‘New Zealanders most commonly admired business people for the social orientation or social responsibility (26% of the reasons given for admiring business people) or because they started small and became big (also 26%)’ (Industry New Zealand, 2002: 9).

9. This desire is reflected in government policy where a strong local orientation towards fostering success among Maori business and education ventures exists. As examples, the government Ministry of Maori Development,Te Puni Kokiri, was set up to facilitate and support Maori achievements in the key areas of health, education, training and economic resource development, and the government continues to support Maori education ventures such as Te Wananga o Aotearoa featured later in this case.

10. The Treaty of Waitangi signed in 1840 guaranteed certain customary rights to Maori, which the New Zealand courts have extended to cover equal Maori opportunities in a range of government‐sponsored activities.

11. One outcome of the collapse of Carich and another PTE was the introduction of a controversial ‘export education levy’ announced by the government on PTEs to protect international students in failed ventures. The existing tax of $183 per person would be supplemented by a levy of 0.45% of fees. Such a levy has upset PTEs, claims Clive Brown of the Association for Private Providers of English Language. There are some 900 PTEs in NZ and Brown maintains the New Zealand Qualifications Authority has approved a veritable explosion of schools some of which should never have been allowed to open, blaming the government for recent collapses of schools. Brown suggests that the government should do regular monitoring, more enforcement and random checks on schools to ensure they meet the grade (Sinoski, 2003b). Also to protest against the levy was independent tertiary director David Guerin who said the move set a strange precedent in holding an industry accountable for a competitors’ failure when it had no market entry control: ‘The government controls entry to this industry and it must take responsibility for any failures’ (Raman, 2003). Apart from an increased government levy/insurance scheme, an ethics code is planned for PTEs outlining ethical practices towards students, and setting up grievance processes and quality mark standards (Warren, 2003).

12. Caron Taurima was reported as saying ‘When that [receivership] happened I felt like the load had been lifted and I could stand tall, go out and shake the hands of my staff and students and say “sorry”’ (Perrott, 2003b).

13. Including notably in the context of this article, both leadership and entrepreneurship where the inclination to construe events and outcomes in terms of the personal traits of the individual leader or entrepreneur is currently less in evidence than previously.