Darren McCabe - Academia.edu (original) (raw)
Papers by Darren McCabe
Organization, Oct 20, 2018
1. Introduction 2. Do Managers Dream of Electric Staff or a Design for Drudgery? 3. Manufacturing... more 1. Introduction 2. Do Managers Dream of Electric Staff or a Design for Drudgery? 3. Manufacturing the Enterprise Self 4. Mechanizing Emotions 5. In the Belly of the Machine 6. Coping through Teamwork or How Staff Oil the Machine 7. Divided and Conquered? 8. Conclusion
Organization, May 1, 2008
This paper explores two discourses that are bound up with `producing' two types of subject in... more This paper explores two discourses that are bound up with `producing' two types of subject in a UK Bank. An enterprise discourse, which stresses responsible, customer focused, team players that use their initiative and a Fordist discourse, which conceives of employees as mechanical beings who repetitively process work. Through attending to the work experiences of back office clerks, the paper considers how the latter discourse `represses' the former. Although distinct, the two discourses share a common bureaucratic rationale and a logic of individualization that represses more collective ways of being or alternative subjectivities that might challenge or question the status quo. Nonetheless, the paper indicates limits to the power that management is able to exercise through enterprise, given the contradictory and flawed approach that was adopted.
New Technology Work and Employment, Mar 1, 1998
New Technology Work and Employment, Mar 1, 1996
This article explores management's strategic decision making in relation to Total Quality Man... more This article explores management's strategic decision making in relation to Total Quality Management (TQM). It demonstrates that management's strategies are fraught with politics and power relations, which influence the ‘choice’ of strategy and the way in which such strategies are ‘implemented’. Hence, management's strategic decision making may not be planned and rational, and their behaviour is often contradictory which may undermine TQM or render its outcomes uncertain and contestable.
Human Relations, Aug 28, 2009
This article analyses the ‘enterprise’ discourse (Miller & Rose, 1990; Rose, 1989) that e... more This article analyses the ‘enterprise’ discourse (Miller & 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.
Human Relations, May 1, 2002
Managers are often represented as exercising power over others through different discourses such ... more Managers are often represented as exercising power over others through different discourses such as strategy, total quality management and reengineering. This article seeks to add to our understanding of innovation by considering how managers are also constituted through power relations such that their subjectivity becomes embedded within a particular cultural context that in turn imbues the innovations they adopt. A case study of an insurance company is drawn upon so as to explore how managers may resist new discourses that seem to threaten established ways of thinking and acting. It is argued that innovations reflect and reproduce the past, while simultaneously reshaping it, in ways that are intended and unintended.
International Journal of Information Systems and Change Management, 2007
ABSTRACT This paper argues that the hard/soft distinction used in relation to new management inte... more ABSTRACT This paper argues that the hard/soft distinction used in relation to new management interventions is potentially dangerous because it serves to reproduce the status quo by reinforcing taken-for-granted assumptions about the world. Thus considering innovations to be 'hard' can result in a failure to think through the social implications of one's actions. It is suggested that our understanding of organisations can be enhanced through reflecting on the dichotomy and its underlying assumptions. It is thought that through such reflection, the number of innovations that are instigated with little thought for employees and their Quality of Working Life can be reduced, even though asymmetrical power relations are likely to remain. These issues are explored by drawing on some qualitative research from a company that introduced Statistical Process Control (SPC), which has been described as a 'hard' intervention, in conjunction with Total Quality Management (TQM).
Organization Studies, Jul 20, 2015
This article draws on industry-level research to explore the enterprise discourse in the UK passi... more This article draws on industry-level research to explore the enterprise discourse in the UK passive fire protection industry. It highlights the theoretical weaknesses of the enterprise discourse by questioning the assumption that employers and managers necessarily support enterprise. It examines how employers, not just employees, may seek to resist or evade enterprise and how, far from offering a united front, employers may oppose each other. The article points towards the need for industry-level studies due to the limitations and potentially misleading insights that can flow from organization-level studies. Overall, it is argued that there may be more common ground between employees and employers in terms of opposition to enterprise than has previously been suggested.
Journal of Management Studies, Nov 1, 2000
Organization, Apr 21, 2016
Management Learning, Jun 24, 2017
Employee Relations, Apr 1, 1997
... Darren McCabe, Manchester School of Management, UMIST, Manchester, UK. ... An earlier body of... more ... Darren McCabe, Manchester School of Management, UMIST, Manchester, UK. ... An earlier body of work considered trade unions responses to technological change and questioned the popular Luddite perception of trade unionism (McLoughlin and Clark, 1994, p. 2). Focusing ...
Bloomsbury Academic eBooks, 1999
... Magasin 11, rue Lavoisier 75008 PARIS Tél.: +33(0)1 42 65 39 95 Fax: +33 (0)1 42 65 02 46. Ho... more ... Magasin 11, rue Lavoisier 75008 PARIS Tél.: +33(0)1 42 65 39 95 Fax: +33 (0)1 42 65 02 46. Horaires d'ouverture du magasin: Du mardi au vendredi, de 09h30 à 18h30 sans interruption Le Samedi, de 10h00 à 18h00 sans interruption. ... Auteur : MCCABE Darr. ...
Organization, Oct 20, 2018
1. Introduction 2. Do Managers Dream of Electric Staff or a Design for Drudgery? 3. Manufacturing... more 1. Introduction 2. Do Managers Dream of Electric Staff or a Design for Drudgery? 3. Manufacturing the Enterprise Self 4. Mechanizing Emotions 5. In the Belly of the Machine 6. Coping through Teamwork or How Staff Oil the Machine 7. Divided and Conquered? 8. Conclusion
Organization, May 1, 2008
This paper explores two discourses that are bound up with `producing' two types of subject in... more This paper explores two discourses that are bound up with `producing' two types of subject in a UK Bank. An enterprise discourse, which stresses responsible, customer focused, team players that use their initiative and a Fordist discourse, which conceives of employees as mechanical beings who repetitively process work. Through attending to the work experiences of back office clerks, the paper considers how the latter discourse `represses' the former. Although distinct, the two discourses share a common bureaucratic rationale and a logic of individualization that represses more collective ways of being or alternative subjectivities that might challenge or question the status quo. Nonetheless, the paper indicates limits to the power that management is able to exercise through enterprise, given the contradictory and flawed approach that was adopted.
New Technology Work and Employment, Mar 1, 1998
New Technology Work and Employment, Mar 1, 1996
This article explores management's strategic decision making in relation to Total Quality Man... more This article explores management's strategic decision making in relation to Total Quality Management (TQM). It demonstrates that management's strategies are fraught with politics and power relations, which influence the ‘choice’ of strategy and the way in which such strategies are ‘implemented’. Hence, management's strategic decision making may not be planned and rational, and their behaviour is often contradictory which may undermine TQM or render its outcomes uncertain and contestable.
Human Relations, Aug 28, 2009
This article analyses the ‘enterprise’ discourse (Miller & Rose, 1990; Rose, 1989) that e... more This article analyses the ‘enterprise’ discourse (Miller & 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.
Human Relations, May 1, 2002
Managers are often represented as exercising power over others through different discourses such ... more Managers are often represented as exercising power over others through different discourses such as strategy, total quality management and reengineering. This article seeks to add to our understanding of innovation by considering how managers are also constituted through power relations such that their subjectivity becomes embedded within a particular cultural context that in turn imbues the innovations they adopt. A case study of an insurance company is drawn upon so as to explore how managers may resist new discourses that seem to threaten established ways of thinking and acting. It is argued that innovations reflect and reproduce the past, while simultaneously reshaping it, in ways that are intended and unintended.
International Journal of Information Systems and Change Management, 2007
ABSTRACT This paper argues that the hard/soft distinction used in relation to new management inte... more ABSTRACT This paper argues that the hard/soft distinction used in relation to new management interventions is potentially dangerous because it serves to reproduce the status quo by reinforcing taken-for-granted assumptions about the world. Thus considering innovations to be 'hard' can result in a failure to think through the social implications of one's actions. It is suggested that our understanding of organisations can be enhanced through reflecting on the dichotomy and its underlying assumptions. It is thought that through such reflection, the number of innovations that are instigated with little thought for employees and their Quality of Working Life can be reduced, even though asymmetrical power relations are likely to remain. These issues are explored by drawing on some qualitative research from a company that introduced Statistical Process Control (SPC), which has been described as a 'hard' intervention, in conjunction with Total Quality Management (TQM).
Organization Studies, Jul 20, 2015
This article draws on industry-level research to explore the enterprise discourse in the UK passi... more This article draws on industry-level research to explore the enterprise discourse in the UK passive fire protection industry. It highlights the theoretical weaknesses of the enterprise discourse by questioning the assumption that employers and managers necessarily support enterprise. It examines how employers, not just employees, may seek to resist or evade enterprise and how, far from offering a united front, employers may oppose each other. The article points towards the need for industry-level studies due to the limitations and potentially misleading insights that can flow from organization-level studies. Overall, it is argued that there may be more common ground between employees and employers in terms of opposition to enterprise than has previously been suggested.
Journal of Management Studies, Nov 1, 2000
Organization, Apr 21, 2016
Management Learning, Jun 24, 2017
Employee Relations, Apr 1, 1997
... Darren McCabe, Manchester School of Management, UMIST, Manchester, UK. ... An earlier body of... more ... Darren McCabe, Manchester School of Management, UMIST, Manchester, UK. ... An earlier body of work considered trade unions responses to technological change and questioned the popular Luddite perception of trade unionism (McLoughlin and Clark, 1994, p. 2). Focusing ...
Bloomsbury Academic eBooks, 1999
... Magasin 11, rue Lavoisier 75008 PARIS Tél.: +33(0)1 42 65 39 95 Fax: +33 (0)1 42 65 02 46. Ho... more ... Magasin 11, rue Lavoisier 75008 PARIS Tél.: +33(0)1 42 65 39 95 Fax: +33 (0)1 42 65 02 46. Horaires d'ouverture du magasin: Du mardi au vendredi, de 09h30 à 18h30 sans interruption Le Samedi, de 10h00 à 18h00 sans interruption. ... Auteur : MCCABE Darr. ...