Considering the intersection between managerial discourses, sexuality and contemporary cultural resources such as lifestyle magazines, this article reflects critically on the extent to which the discourses and techniques associated with the management of bureaucratic organizations have been incorporated into the (self-)management of sexuality and sexual relations. Locating its concern with sexuality within critical social theory, the article develops a critique of the work of those who emphasize the postmodernization of sexuality and the informalization of management. Drawing on recent research involving an analysis of management texts and lifestyle magazines, as well as a series of semi-structured interviews, it argues that contemporary cultural discourses on sexuality, permeated as they are by references to managerial imperatives such as efficiency and effectiveness, serve to arrest the inter-subjective aspects of eroticism (Bataille, 1962; Rose, 1995) and to reduce sexual relations in the contemporary era to yet another aspect of the ‘reflexive project of self’ (Giddens, 1992).
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Adkins, L. (2000) ‘Mobile Desire: Aesthetics, Sexuality and the ‘Lesbian’ at Work’ , Sexualities3(2): 201–218 .
2.
Alvesson, M. and Willmott, H. (1992) Critical Management Studies. London: Sage .
3.
Bakhtin, M. (1968) Rabelais and His World. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press .
4.
Balzac, H. (1955[1883]) Eugenie Grandet. Harmondsworth: Penguin .
5.
Bataille, G. (1962) Eroticism (trans. M. Dalwood). London: Calder and Boyars .
6.
Bauman, Z. (1994) Alone Again: Ethics After Certainty. London: Demos .
7.
Bauman, Z. (1998) ‘On Postmodern Uses of Sex’ , Theory, Culture and Society15(3–4): 19–33 .
8.
Benhabib, S. (1992) Situating The Self. Cambridge: Polity .
9.
Blanchard, K. and Johnson, S. (1983) The One Minute Manager. London: Fontana .
10.
Blanchard, K. and Lorber, R. (1984) Putting The One Minute Manager to Work: How to Turn the Three Secrets into Skills. London: Fontana .
11.
Bourdieu, P. (1984) Distinction: A Social Critique of The Judgement of Good Taste. London: Routledge .
12.
Burrell, G. (1984) ‘Sex and Organizational Analysis’ , Organization Studies5(2): 97–118 .
13.
Carabine, J. (1992) ‘ “ Constructing Women”: Women’s Sexuality and Social Policy’ , Critical Social Policy34(1): 23–37 .
14.
Cohen, S. and Taylor, L. (1976) Escape Attempts: The Theory and Practice of Resistance to Everyday Life. London: Allen and Lane .
15.
Coleman, R. and Barrie, G. (1990) 525 Ways to Be A Better Manager. Aldershot: Gower .
16.
Collinson, P. (1999) ‘Valentine Vows: No Sentiment in Financial Affairs’, The Guardian, 13th February.
17.
Coupland, J. (1996) ‘Dating Advertisements: Discourses of the Commodified Self’ , Discourse and Society7(2): 187–207 .
18.
Crook, S. (1998) ‘Minotaurs and Other Monsters: “Everyday Life” in Recent Social Theory’ , Sociology32(3): 523–540 .
19.
De Certeau, M. (1984) The Practice of Everyday Life. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press .
20.
Du Gay, P. and Salaman, G. (1992) ‘The Culture of the Customer’ , Journal of Management Studies29(5): 615–633 .
21.
Featherstone, M. (1991) Consumer Culture and Postmodernism. London: Sage .
22.
Featherstone, M. (1998) ‘Love and Eroticism: An Introduction’ , Theory, Culture and Society15 (3–4): 1–18 .
23.
Fletcher, W. (1986) The Seven Keys to Superefficiency. London: Sidgwick and Jackson .
24.
Foucault, M. (1977) The Archaeology of Knowledge. London: Tavistock .
25.
Foucault, M. (1979) The History of Sexuality, Volume One: An Introduction. Harmondsworth: Penguin .
26.
Fournier, V. and Grey, C. (2000) ‘At The Critical Moment: Conditions and Prospects For Critical Management Studies’ , Human Relations53(1): 7–32 .
27.
Frith, H. (2000) ‘Focusing on Sex: Using Focus Groups in Sex Research’ , Sexualities. 3 (3): 275–297 .
28.
Gergen, K. (1991) The Saturated Self: Dilemma of Identity in Contemporary Life. New York: Basic Books .
29.
Giddens, A. (1992) The Transformation of Intimacy: Sexuality, Love and Eroticism in Modern Societies. Cambridge: Polity Press .
30.
Grady, D. (1999) ‘Sure, We’ve Got a Pill for That’, New York Times 14 February: 1-1.
31.
Gramsci, A. (1971) Selection From Prison Notebooks. London: Lawrence & Wishart .
32.
Gramsci, A. (1988) ‘Americanism and Fordism’, in D. Forgacs (ed.) A Gramsci Reader: Selected Writings 1916–1935. London: Lawrence & Wishart . pp. 275–299.
33.
Grey, C. (1994) ‘Career as a Project of the Self and Labour Process Discipline’ , Sociology28(2): 479–497 .
34.
Habermas, J. (1984) The Theory of Communicative Action: Volume One. Cambridge: Polity Press .
35.
Habermas, J. (1985) The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity. Cambridge: Polity Press .
36.
Habermas, J. (1987) The Theory of Communicative Action: Volume Two. Cambridge: Polity .
37.
Habermas, J. (1992) Revised edition. Autonomy and Solidarity: Interviews with Jurgen Habermas (edited and introduced by P. Dews). London: Verso .
38.
Hancock, P. and Tyler, M. (forthcoming) The Management of Everyday Life. Milton Keynes: Open University Press .
39.
Handy, C. (1985[1976]) Understanding Organizations (3rd edition). London: Penguin .
40.
Handy, C. (1989) The Age of Unreason. London: Business Books .
41.
Handy, C. (1994) The Empty Raincoat: Making Sense of the Future. London: Arrow .
42.
Handy, C. (1997) The Hungry Spirit: Beyond Capitalism – A Quest for Purpose in the Modern World. London: Random House .
43.
Hawkes, G. (1996) A Sociology of Sex and Sexuality. Milton Keynes: Open University Press .
44.
Hochschild, A. R. (1994) ‘The Commercial Spirit of Intimate Life and the Abduction of Feminism: Signs from Women’s Advice Books’ , Theory, Culture and Society11: 1–24 .
45.
Holden, P. (1998) The Excellent Manager’s Companion. Aldershot: Gower .
46.
Holland, J., Ramazanoglu, C., Sharpe, S. and Thomson, R. (1998) The Male in the Head. London: Tufnell Press .
47.
Jackson, M. (1987) ‘ “ Facts of Life” or the Eroticization of Women’s Oppression? Sexology and the Social Construction of Heterosexuality’, in P. Caplan (ed.) The Cultural Construction of Sexuality, pp. 52–81. London: Tavistock .
48.
Jackson, S. and Scott, S. (1997) ‘Gut Reactions to Matters of the Heart: Reflection on Rationality, Irrationality and Sexuality’ , The Sociological Review45(4): 551–575 .
49.
Jagger, E. (1998) ‘Marketing the Self, Buying an Other: Dating in a Post Modern , Consumer Society’, Sociology32(4): 795–814 .
50.
Langsdorf, L. (1997) ‘Refusing Individuality: How Human Beings are Made into Subjects’ , Communication Theory7(4): 321–342 .
51.
Maffesoli, M. (1989) ‘The Sociology of Everyday Life (Epistemological Elements)’ , Current Sociology37: 1–16 .
52.
Maffesoli, M. (1996) The Time of the Tribes. London: Sage .
53.
Marcuse, H. (1955) Eros and Civilization. Boston, MA: Beacon .
54.
McRobbie, A. (1996) ‘More! New Sexualities in Girls’ and Women’s Magazines’, in J. Curran et al. (eds) Cultural Studies and Communications, pp. 172–194. London: Arnold .
55.
Mellor, P. and Shilling, C. (1997) Re-Forming the Body: Religion, Community and Modernity. London: Sage .
56.
Mestrovic, S. (1997) Postemotional Society. London: Sage .
57.
Mintzberg, H. (1994) The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning. London: Prentice Hall .
58.
Pascale, R. (1990) Managing on the Edge: How Successful Companies Use Conflict to Stay Ahead. London: Penguin .
59.
Passerin D’Entreves, M. and Benhabib, S. (1996) Habermas and the Unfinished Project of Modernity. Cambridge: Polity .
60.
Payne, J. and Payne, S. (1999) Management – How To Do It. Aldershot: Gower .
61.
Peters, T. (1988) Thriving on Chaos. London: Macmillan .
62.
Peters, T. (1992) Liberation Management. London: Macmillan .
63.
Peters, T. (1994) The Tom Peters Seminar. London: Macmillan ,
64.
Peters, T. and Austin, N. (1985) A Passion for Excellence. London: Harper Collins .
65.
Peters, T. and Waterman, T. (1982) In Search of Excellence. London: Harper Collins .
66.
Peters, T. (1997) The Circle of Innovation. London: Macmillan .
67.
Plummer, K. (1996) ‘Foreword’, in W. Simon, Postmodern Sexualities, pp. ix–xvi. London: Routledge .
68.
Ritzer, G. (1992) The McDonaldization of Society. London: Sage .
69.
Rojek, C. (1994) Ways of Escape: Modern Transformations in Leisure and Travel. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield .
70.
Rose, G. (1995) Love’s Work. London: Chatto Windus .
71.
Roseneil, S. (2000) ‘Queer Frameworks and Queer Tendencies: Towards an Understanding of Postmodern Transformations of Sexuality’ , Sociological Research Online, 5(3): http://www.socresonline.org.uk/5/3/roseneil.html
72.
Scott, S. and Freeman, R. (1995) ‘Prevention as a Problem of Modernity: The Example of HIV and AIDS’, in J. Gabe (ed.) Medicine, Health and Risk: Sociological Approaches, pp. 151–170. Oxford: Blackwell .
73.
Seidman, S. (1989) ‘Constructing Sex as a Domain of Pleasure and Self-Expression: Sexual Ideology in the Sixties’ , Theory, Culture and Society6: 293–315 .
74.
Senge, P. (1990) The Fifth Discipline. London: Random House .
75.
Senge, P., Kleiner, A., Roberts, C., Ross, R. and Smith, B. (1994) The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook. London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing .
76.
Simon, W. (1996) Postmodern Sexualities. London: Routledge .
77.
Sotorin, P. and Tyrell, S. (1998) ‘Wondering About Critical Management Studies: A Review of and Commentary on Selected Texts’ , Management Communication Quarterly12(2): 303–336 .
78.
Stewart, T. (1997) Intellectual Capital: The New Wealth of Organizations. London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing .
79.
Storr, M. (1999) ‘Postmodern Bisexuality’ , Sexualities2(3): 309–325 .
80.
Weeks, J. (1985) Sexuality and its Discontents: Meanings, Myths and Modern Sexualities. London: Routledge .
81.
Wouters, C. (1998) ‘Balancing Sex and Love since the 1960s’ Sexual Revolution’ , Theory, Culture and Society15(3–4): 187–214 .
