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Abstract
This paper interrogates and contrasts representations of work and Utopia in two examples of popular culture. The examples are a sample of contemporary popular management books and a sample of work-related themes in the popular music of Bruce Springsteen. In comparing the two the paper examines how they both use utopian representations as a key element of their claims, yet do so in markedly different ways. It is argued that Springsteen uses a “voice from within” to explore the ambiguities and paradoxes that emerge from the gap between real experience and utopian desire. Conversely, popular management books tend to speak from a “voice from above” that actively suppress ambiguity and ignore power in order to reproduce the dominant ethos of contemporary capitalism. Thus while popular management provides uncritical support for its imaginary Utopia, Springsteen provides a compelling critique of the promises of economic freedom through capitalism—promises which management writers are so often complicit in (re)producing.
Notes
Correspondence to: Carl Rhodes, Senior Research Fellow, OVAL Research, Faculty of Education, University of Technology Sydney, PO Box 123, Broadway NSW 2007, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]
As discussed by Gencarelli, the concern for problematizing the “American Dream” started to become evident in his third album Born to Run (1975). Prior to that his lyrics centred more on “street life, wild youth, and about living on the verge of working class adulthood, but dreaming of a way out to something greater” (CitationGencarelli 1994, 285).
From the 1987 album of the same name.
From the 1978 album Darkness on the Edge of Town.
Although I agree that utopian “fast capitalism” is a dominant theme in popular management writing, I am not suggesting that all writing about management and organizations written for general audiences reflects or reproduces this theme. Indeed, there are many examples where this is not the case. These include books that offer advice to managers—examples being Weiss’ (Citation1995) discussion the serious pitfalls that can be encountered when implementing new management practices, Frost’s (2003) elaboration of how the toxic emotions produced by organizations can be managed, and Manzoni and Barsoux’s (Citation2002) review of how to deal with the negative dynamics that characterize many relationships between managers and those who report to them. There are also popular books that critique business practices such as globalization (e.g. CitationDanaher 1997), downsizing (CitationDowns and Stogner 1995) and corporate greed (e.g. CitationHuffington 2003). Further, some popular authors critically assess the practices of particular corporations—these include Enron (e.g. CitationSwartz and Watkins 2003), IBM (e.g. CitationBlack 2001), McDonalds (e.g. CitationSchlosser 2001) and RJR Nabisco (e.g. CitationBurrough and Helyar 1992). Having said this, my purpose here is not to provide a thematic review of the entire corpus of management books, but rather to examine one dominant genre of them.
As reported on Jim Collins web-site (Collins 2002), Built to Last spent almost five years on Business Week’s bestseller list, has had over 70 printings, and has been translated into 16 languages.
The cover of the current edition of the book reports that it has sold over three million copies and was on the New York Times’ bestseller list for over three years.
This growing interest in utopian images of organizations in the early 1980s is bleakly contrasted by Springsteen’s album Nebraska—a chilling depiction of the underside of American industrialism that was released in the same year as the publication of In Search of Excellence.
As reported on Michael Hammer’s company web-site (CitationHammer & Company 2003), Reengineering the Corporation has not only sold more than two million copies and been translated into 30 languages, but it also “introduced the business world to the power of radical change … put the word ‘reengineering’ into the English language … [and is] the most successful business book of the last decade.”
From the 1980 album The River.
From the 1975 album Born to Run.
From the 1980 album The River.
From the 1982 album Nebraska.
From the 1995 album The Ghost of Tom Joad.
In “Adam Raised a Cain” from the 1978 album Darkness on the Edge of Town.
From the 1978 album Darkness on the Edge of Town.
From the 1982 album Nebraska.
From the 1980 album The River.