DetailedResearchProposalandCaseforExemption¡­

Detailed Research Proposal and Case for

Exemption ¡­

The manager's tale: an exploration of the narrative construction of managerial identity Patrick Reedy PhD 2004

Acknowledgements

My thanks to Professor Martin Parker for his encouragement, support, tolerance, always useful criticism and friendship. I could not have wished for a better supervisor.

Thanks also to Doctor Deborah Kerfoot for her support, assistance, confidence in my ability, and stimulating discussions of this work.

Thank you Kathryn for your unflagging support, belief, encouragement, critique and proofreading, I promise to reciprocate!

Finally thanks to Eleanor and Florence, my two daughters, for bringing me back down to earth on the frequent occasions I have needed it, and reminding me of what is really important.

Patrick Reedy Page 2 04/12/15 Abstract

The thesis explores the idea that the construction of managerial identity can usefully be conceptualised as a narrative accomplishment. The research is framed as itself a story that is made up of interrelated

autobiographies and biographies. In my introduction I explain how and why I have used stories, including an account of how I collected and organised the material that forms the empirical content of the thesis. In the following two chapters I present both my own life history and those of a number of managers. In Chapters Four, Five and Six, I develop my theoretical position on narrative identity. I start by evaluating how managerial identities are framed within Critical Management Studies (CMS), offering a critique of CMS as a product of an academic identity project that often unreflexively relies upon positioning managers as ?the Other?. I go on to argue that, as a result, a rather limited bipolar debate between humanistic and poststructuralist conceptions of identity has become characteristic of CMS research. In Chapter Six I argue that the existentialist philosophy of Heidegger, Sartre and Ricoeur might extend thinking about managerial identity through its insistence on the essential narrativity of human existence and its conception of lives as existential quests. I then return to the life histories, thematising them using the theoretical framework developed previously, according to three modes of narrative analysis; those of historical reference, narrative elements, and narrative performance. I conclude that the narrative approach and the use of life histories has much to offer future research into managerial identity and has important ethical and political implications for the CMS ?project?. These implications include the ethical imperative of

representing others empathetically and exploring the links between our own identity projects, our representation of others and the pursuit of social justice.

Patrick Reedy Page 3 04/12/15 Contents

Chapter One: Introduction or ¡®Once Upon A Time¡¯ ..........................................6

Telling

Stories ..................................................................................................................10

Management and

CMS.....................................................................................................14 Methodological

Considerations........................................................................................18 The

Narrators....................................................................................................................25

The Structure of the

Thesis ..............................................................................................32 Chapter Two: The

Researcher ..................................................................................35