Critical Representation of Work and Organisation in Popular Culture

Citation

Ivory, C. (2011), "Critical Representation of Work and Organisation in Popular Culture", Critical Perspectives on International Business, Vol. 7 No. 1, pp. 111-112. https://doi.org/10.1108/17422041111103877

Rhodes and Westwood bring together a raft of post‐modern organisation theory to explore a range of popular culture output from the USA and UK. At the heart of the book is a series of case studies of films, British TV sitcoms, cartoons and music. Through these case studies they provide detailed analysis of the way work, organisation and management are represented in each. The central claim of the book is that popular culture should not be dismissed as merely “low‐brow”, but be judged for what it can contribute in terms of critical and new thinking on business and management.

First, the reader is introduced to the narrow and brutalising masculinity of the Glengarry Glen Ross real‐estate sales office. The bullying management style, the obsessive focus on the bottom line and the personal crisis of those caught up in organisational transformation are all laid bare in the film to chilling effect. The chapter is contextualised in literature on the debasing effects of over masculinised work places and the observations of the film's writer Mamet. In the following chapter Rhodes and Westwood draw on a growing resource of literature on science fiction to show how the film Blade Runner can be understood as discourse on technology, commerce and humanity. Technology and commerce are depicted as rudderless, as pursuing their own logics without regard for their impact on social or human development. The human race itself seems adrift in a world where synthetic human “replicants” are hunted down and “retired” without consideration for any humanity they may possess. The film ends with Blade Runner, and the final replicant Rachael, escaping the all encompassing capitalism of 2019 to an alternate life outside its grasp.

Next Rhodes and Westwood deal with the portrayal of class and gender in British situation comedies. The focus is primarily upon gender and they are rightly critical of accounts that have posited women as present in the genre only as negative gender stereotypes. They pick out numerous examples in which male sitcom characters are portrayed as feckless and weak in contrast to the competent and even controlling women around them. However, in asking whether situation comedies can form a ground of critique they also note that the real venom of the genre is typically reserved for transgressive “social climbers” like Basil Fawlty and Hyacinth Bucket (pronounced “Bouquet”). The humour typically revolves around the discomfort and “inauthentic‐ness” of those who try to cross class boundaries. As such, they conclude that British comedy can best be viewed as a conservative and constraining discursive force.

The next chapter takes on the question of the “McDonaldisation” of management and culture – the idea that routinised bureaucratic management practice is proliferating and impacting negatively on culture and the work place. The chapter, in opposition to the more deterministic treatment of the issue, introduces popular culture as a critical force relative to McDonaldisation. We are subsequently introduced to the likes of The Simpsons, Beavis and Butt‐Head and South Park to illustrate how this particular style of management is routinely unpicked and ridiculed within popular culture. The chapter's highpoint for me was its account of the feral and uncooperative Bevis and Butt‐Head and their selective disregard and misuse of the detailed bureaucratic rules to which they are subject in the burger joint where they work. To amuse themselves they cook fries in engine oil, arrest customers and render themselves psychotic after drinking the establishment's cola.

The final three chapters turn their attention to music. The first concerns Bruce Springsteen's discourse on the cracks evident in the American Dream for blue collar workers. This is followed by an essay on “selling out” and “authenticity”, as viewed from the perspective of the UK Punk scene. The final chapter deals with the phenomena of “bricolage” and technological “tinkering” in rock, pop and dance music. Here the reader is treated to a historical tour‐de‐force on technological tinkering contextualised in rich literature on management as bricolage.

While the book is a valuable resource of case study material and an excellent introduction to a range of “post‐modern” management literature, Rhodes' and Westwood's thesis, that popular culture is a viable resource for the renewal of critical thought, will not convince all readers. Some will also question whether these very varied cases can rightly be lumped together as popular culture: “On the Buses” yes, but Punk Rock? Similarly, the idea that academic writing is just a series of tropes that imply authority and that it has no greater claim to objectivity than say sitcom writing, will cause the book to collect some air‐miles on the way to the far side of the room from the hands of some readers. The authors do undoubtedly succeed in demonstrating that popular culture reflects and represents some shared societal anxieties about work, organisations and management and that popular culture can at times offer a critical voice. The depth of analysis offered on an excellent range of cases, however, should earn the book a place on the reading list of any course concerned with the representation of management and organisation in popular culture and on the shelf of any academic with an interest in management in popular culture. Does it succeed in locating popular culture as an engine of critique? That the reader will have to decide for themselves.