Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Enterprise Contested
T2 - Betwixt and Between the Discourses of Career and Enterprise in a UK Bank
AU - McCabe, Darren
PY - 2009/10
Y1 - 2009/10
N2 - This article analyses the 'enterprise discourse' (Miller and Rose,1990; Rose,1989) that endeavours to reinvent employees as responsible, autonomous, self-regulating, customer-focused, team players. In this study of a major UK Bank, the staff both endorsed and turned the enterprise discourse back on management and so the boundaries between dissent and consent are blurred. The case study highlights that enterprise does not arrive fully formed and can be a weapon of employees rather than simply a tool of those who seek to exercise power. It is argued that whilst enterprise is a contemporary discourse, it reproduces aspects of a much older 'career' (McKinlay,2002; Tempest et al,2004) discourse in UK financial services. The continuity and discontinuity between the two discourses fuelled resistance, whilst oiling and obscuring, the reproduction of enduring inequalities, that straddle both discourses.
AB - This article analyses the 'enterprise discourse' (Miller and Rose,1990; Rose,1989) that endeavours to reinvent employees as responsible, autonomous, self-regulating, customer-focused, team players. In this study of a major UK Bank, the staff both endorsed and turned the enterprise discourse back on management and so the boundaries between dissent and consent are blurred. The case study highlights that enterprise does not arrive fully formed and can be a weapon of employees rather than simply a tool of those who seek to exercise power. It is argued that whilst enterprise is a contemporary discourse, it reproduces aspects of a much older 'career' (McKinlay,2002; Tempest et al,2004) discourse in UK financial services. The continuity and discontinuity between the two discourses fuelled resistance, whilst oiling and obscuring, the reproduction of enduring inequalities, that straddle both discourses.
KW - customer service
KW - discourse
KW - enterprise
KW - financial services
KW - power
KW - qualitative
U2 - 10.1177/0018726709336499
DO - 10.1177/0018726709336499
M3 - Journal article
VL - 62
SP - 1551
EP - 1579
JO - Human Relations
JF - Human Relations
SN - 0018-7267
IS - 10
ER -