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Office politics: Reading the business management manual as political theory

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Contemporary Political Theory Aims and scope

Abstract

Like the public political sphere, the world of the workplace contains literary works (popular, scientific and those somewhere in-between) offering analysis, advice and philosophy to those in positions of command. In this article, I read business management advice manuals as works of political theory, focusing on their treatment of the problem of legitimacy in the relationship between employer and employee. I highlight and analyze key strategies of legitimation, draw their connections to discussions of legitimacy in the history of political thought and examine changes in workplace legitimation in the context of macroeconomic transformation.

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Notes

  1. There may be exceptions to this principle, particularly in the highly dynamic and flexible world of computer software. Under most circumstances, however, limits on a product’s use imposed by the producer/seller are made known to the buyer in advance and can be accounted for precisely in the planning of production.

  2. The comment, however, is a curious one. The authors clearly mean to reject what they deem an ‘autocratic’ approach to management, placing this statement at the beginning of their protagonist’s search for an ideal manager. Yet, it is unclear what is meant by the suggestion that autocratic management permitted organizations ‘to win’.

  3. An expression of the perception of trustworthiness is also one of the favored techniques of the con artist. See, for example, Maurer (1999); Halttunen (1982).

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  1. Department of Political Science and Public Administration, California State University, Stanislaus, Turlock, CA 95382, USA

    J C Myers

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Myers, J. Office politics: Reading the business management manual as political theory. Contemp Polit Theory 13, 221–241 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1057/cpt.2013.17

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