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Re‐Engineering the Sense of Self: the Manager and the Management Guru

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  • Bradley G. Jackson

Abstract

Conventional explanations of the enormous popularity of management gurus have centred on the need for managers to find relatively quick and simple solutions to their organizations' complex problems and the gurus' adeptness with marketing technology to promote these solutions. A few writers have also recognized the role that management gurus play in responding to managers' needs to make sense of themselves. Management gurus appeal to the manager's social or externally directed esteem needs by legitimating and celebrating the manager's role in society. the spiritual and charismatic quality of the gurus' work resonates with the manager's personal or internally driven needs by providing a sense of hope and purpose. The relationship between the management guru and manager is further explored with an analysis of the rhetorical techniques employed by the two leaders of the re‐engineering movement, Michael Hammer and James Champy. Adopting a dramatistic or dramaturgical perspective, I describe how these writers skilfully manipulate the managers'sense of themselves to provide a compelling rationale for launching or supporting a re‐engineering initiative within their organizations. the inherent dramatic appeal of the re‐engineering process is an important reason for the movement's phenomenal popularity and, paradoxically, its lack of universal success.

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  • Bradley G. Jackson, 1996. "Re‐Engineering the Sense of Self: the Manager and the Management Guru," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 33(5), pages 571-590, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:jomstd:v:33:y:1996:i:5:p:571-590
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-6486.1996.tb00809.x
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Hammer, Michael & Champy, James, 1993. "Reengineering the corporation: A manifesto for business revolution," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 90-91.
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    Cited by:

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    2. Qu, Sandy Q. & Cooper, David J., 2011. "The role of inscriptions in producing a balanced scorecard," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 36(6), pages 344-362.
    3. Eric Maton & Dragos Zelinschi, 2012. "La Diffusion Des Innovations Manageriales En Controle De Gestion, Une Approche Rhetorique," Post-Print hal-00691178, HAL.
    4. Mazlan Maskor & Niklas K Steffens & Kim Peters & S Alexander Haslam, 2022. "Discovering the secrets of leadership success: Comparing commercial and academic preoccupations," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 47(1), pages 79-104, February.
    5. Heusinkveld, Stefan & Visscher, Klaasjan, 2012. "Practice what you preach: How consultants frame management concepts as enacted practice," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 285-297.
    6. Iuan-Yuan Lu & Teng-Hu Su & Ing-Chung Huang, 2009. "Consulting knowledge and organisation's absorptive capacity: A communication chain perspective," The Service Industries Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(12), pages 2007-2022, June.
    7. La Torre, Matteo & Dumay, John & Rea, Michele Antonio & Abhayawansa, Subhash, 2020. "A journey towards a safe harbour: The rhetorical process of the International Integrated Reporting Council," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(2).
    8. Verena Komander & Andreas König, 2024. "Organizations on stage: organizational research and the performing arts," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 74(1), pages 303-352, February.

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