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‘We Are All Managers Now’; ‘We Always Were’: On the Development and Demise of Management

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  • Christopher Grey

Abstract

The existence of an identifiable group of people who are labelled ‘managers’ has been one of the most significant aspects of the organization of work and society for well over a century. This separation of managers from others has been questioned for some years by critical writers, not least because it ignores the many managerial activities performed by non‐managers both in and outside the workplace. This argument suggests that the development of the ‘special’ status of managers is a construction which requires explanation. Accepting this, three broad types of explanation are reviewed in the paper: technical, elite and political approaches. Notwithstanding these explanations, in recent years the logic – although not necessarily the actuality – of organizational change programmes, and especially of the concept of empowerment, has been suggestive of the ‘demise’ of management, most especially middle management. This demise has implied an erosion of the distinction between managers and managed. Now, organizational members are told that ‘we are all managers’, and the three approaches have various ways of explaining this, which are reviewed. Critics may reply that ‘we always were’, thus welcoming a more democratic notion of management, but this paper argues that such a reply reflects an inadequate, and potentially oppressive, understanding of management

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  • Christopher Grey, 1999. "‘We Are All Managers Now’; ‘We Always Were’: On the Development and Demise of Management," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(5), pages 561-585, September.
  • Handle: RePEc:bla:jomstd:v:36:y:1999:i:5:p:561-585
    DOI: 10.1111/1467-6486.00149
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    Cited by:

    1. Thibaut Bardon & Stewart Clegg & Emmanuel Josserand, 2012. "Exploring identity construction from a critical management perspective: a research agenda," Post-Print hal-00949864, HAL.
    2. Cooke, Bill, 2001. "From Colonial Administration to Development Management," General Discussion Papers 30562, University of Manchester, Institute for Development Policy and Management (IDPM).
    3. Ziyu Liu & Hung Wong & Jifang Liu, 2022. "Why do Social Workers Leave? A Moderated Mediation of Professionalism, Job Satisfaction, and Managerialism," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(1), pages 1-16, December.
    4. Alvehus, Johan & Spicer, André, 2012. "Financialization as a strategy of workplace control in professional service firms," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 23(7), pages 497-510.
    5. Cooke, Bill, 2002. "The Denial of Slavery in Management Studies," General Discussion Papers 30566, University of Manchester, Institute for Development Policy and Management (IDPM).

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