Office politics: Reading the business management manual as political theory
In: Contemporary political theory: CPT, Band 13, Heft 3, S. 221-241
ISSN: 1470-8914
Like the public political sphere, the world of the workplace contains literary works (popular, scientific and those somewhere in-between) offering analysis, advice and philosophy to those in positions of command. In this article, I read business management advice manuals as works of political theory, focusing on their treatment of the problem of legitimacy in the relationship between employer and employee. I highlight and analyze key strategies of legitimation, draw their connections to discussions of legitimacy in the history of political thought and examine changes in workplace legitimation in the context of macroeconomic transformation. Adapted from the source document.