Rights statement: The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Management Learning,48 (5), 2017, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2017 by SAGE Publications Ltd at the Management Learning page: https://journals.sagepub.com/home/mlq on SAGE Journals Online: http://journals.sagepub.com/
Accepted author manuscript, 303 KB, PDF document
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Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - The Costumes Don’t Do it for Me
T2 - A Qualitative Study of the Translation of Management Guru Texts
AU - McCabe, Darren
AU - Russell, Stephanie
N1 - The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, Management Learning,48 (5), 2017, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2017 by SAGE Publications Ltd at the Management Learning page: https://journals.sagepub.com/home/mlq on SAGE Journals Online: http://journals.sagepub.com/
PY - 2017/11/30
Y1 - 2017/11/30
N2 - It has been argued that management support is important to successfully translate new management ideas into practice. Through focusing on the obstacles to the translation of a management guru text in a manufacturing organisation, we point towards a far more uncertain situation. First, we explore the paradoxical situation of engaged managers undermining the implementation of new ideas. Second, we consider how attempts to use humour to aid translation may generate a variety of unintended employee translations. Third, we examine how the objects that management enlist to support translation can thwart change. It has been argued that ‘technological’ and ‘textual’ objects exercise agency through making humans act in intended ways. Into this mix, we add ‘cultural’ objects (in our case costumes) and argue that while they exercise agency, the outcomes they produce may hinder managerial designs.
AB - It has been argued that management support is important to successfully translate new management ideas into practice. Through focusing on the obstacles to the translation of a management guru text in a manufacturing organisation, we point towards a far more uncertain situation. First, we explore the paradoxical situation of engaged managers undermining the implementation of new ideas. Second, we consider how attempts to use humour to aid translation may generate a variety of unintended employee translations. Third, we examine how the objects that management enlist to support translation can thwart change. It has been argued that ‘technological’ and ‘textual’ objects exercise agency through making humans act in intended ways. Into this mix, we add ‘cultural’ objects (in our case costumes) and argue that while they exercise agency, the outcomes they produce may hinder managerial designs.
KW - Gurus
KW - humour
KW - management
KW - objects
KW - qualitative
KW - resistance
KW - subjectivity
KW - translation
U2 - 10.1177/1350507617714534
DO - 10.1177/1350507617714534
M3 - Journal article
VL - 48
SP - 566
EP - 581
JO - Management Learning
JF - Management Learning
SN - 1350-5076
IS - 5
ER -