Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings - With ISBN/ISSN › Chapter
Research output: Contribution in Book/Report/Proceedings - With ISBN/ISSN › Chapter
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TY - CHAP
T1 - In pursuit of the ambidextrous graduate: potentiality between exploration and exploitation
AU - Costea, Bogdan
AU - Amiridis, Kostas
AU - Crump, Norman
PY - 2012
Y1 - 2012
N2 - This paper investigates March’s (1991, 1993) concepts of ‘exploration’ and ‘exploitation’ in relation to the graduate labour market. We focus on its use of the imagery of potentiality as key criterion of employability and investigate its dimensions through March’s conceptual framework. We argue that the balancing act of exploring and exploiting one’s potential becomes one of the main coordinates through which contemporary organisations attempt to configure the profile of the future employee. An ambidextrous ideal employee is configured who is trapped between the continuous demands of routinised production, execution and implementation, and those of equally sustained experimentation, self-expression, and creativity. We conclude by arguing that this ideal can be interpreted as another example of an unsustainable utopian image of work in the context of contemporary management. The theme of potentiality illustrates the dangers of this utopia in a specific way. On the one hand, it plays the role of an inescapable framework guiding the individual’s sense of self, whilst on the other hand, it predicates the self based upon an image of limitless potential.
AB - This paper investigates March’s (1991, 1993) concepts of ‘exploration’ and ‘exploitation’ in relation to the graduate labour market. We focus on its use of the imagery of potentiality as key criterion of employability and investigate its dimensions through March’s conceptual framework. We argue that the balancing act of exploring and exploiting one’s potential becomes one of the main coordinates through which contemporary organisations attempt to configure the profile of the future employee. An ambidextrous ideal employee is configured who is trapped between the continuous demands of routinised production, execution and implementation, and those of equally sustained experimentation, self-expression, and creativity. We conclude by arguing that this ideal can be interpreted as another example of an unsustainable utopian image of work in the context of contemporary management. The theme of potentiality illustrates the dangers of this utopia in a specific way. On the one hand, it plays the role of an inescapable framework guiding the individual’s sense of self, whilst on the other hand, it predicates the self based upon an image of limitless potential.
KW - March (James G.)
KW - finitude
KW - employability
KW - work
KW - subjectivity
U2 - 10.1108/S0733-558X(2013)0000037006
DO - 10.1108/S0733-558X(2013)0000037006
M3 - Chapter
SN - 978-1-78190-505-0
T3 - Research in the Sociology of Organizations
SP - 53
EP - 74
BT - Managing ‘Human Resources’ by Exploiting and Exploring People’s Potentials
A2 - Holmqvist, Mikael
A2 - Spicer, André
PB - Emerald
ER -