Preparing to work: dramaturgy, cynicism and normative ‘remote’ control in the socialization of graduate recruits in management consulting

Abstract

This paper examines the socialization of graduate recruits into a knowledge intensive labour process and organizational culture. Theoretically the paper draws upon the idea of ‘preparing for work’ to position this early socialization as a crucial moment in the production of subjectivities suited (and booted) for the labour process of management consulting. Empirically the paper reports on a two‐day induction session for new graduate recruits joining a global management consultancy and their responses to this training. Particular attention is given to the use of role‐play and a dramaturgical workshop used in part of the training process. The paper argues that the utilization of dramaturgy in training is consistent with the overall approach to control developed in the firm in response to the fact that the labour process of consulting is often conducted on client sites, away from any direct supervisory gaze. As such, the consultants were subjected to a form of cultural control that was designed to function independently of direct supervision. This control did not operate directly upon the new employees professed values, however, but at one step removed so that a ‘cynical distance’ from the content of the organization’s culture was accepted so long as a professional ‘ethic of behaviour’ was established. By focusing on an ‘ethic of behaviour’ these young professionals were encouraged to internalize a self‐control akin to that of an actor, rather than internalizing the corporate values entirely.

Keywords:

• management consulting
• cultural control
• cynicism
• training
• socialization
• subjectivity

Notes

1. Although our presence as observers, particularly through the interviews and informal discussions, may have had some effect on the trainee’s perceptions of the event, if only by opening a small space for reflexive distance, the intensity of the event and the continuous observation and assessment by facilitators, managers and senior consultants from ICU almost certainly dwarfed any influence that we had on the training event. The majority of the formal interviews were conducted after the event, so the reflexive space opened by this dialogue should not have unduly influenced the unfolding of the events in the actual training. During the formal training we kept our presence as observers as low key as possible. As the primary field researcher was of a similar age to many of the recruits, our presence qua observers was also reduced.

2. The Stepford Wives, originally a novel by Ira Levin, has been made into a film twice. Both films are set in a US suburb where all the men have identical, beautiful, obedient wives. As the plot unfolds it is revealed that the wives’ obedient uniformity is the result of their being controlled by their husbands. In the first version the original wives have been killed and replaced by robots. In the second version the wives are controlled through neural implants. The allusion in this quote is to the uniformity of ICU consultants, who in other contexts we have heard referring to themselves as ‘ICU androids’.