In this paper, we show how a middle manager interprets the action of two employees as problematic and how he solves it by using the company's code of ethics as the basis for firing them. Our telling of the story unmasks a darker side of codes and we conceptualize it in terms of power and...

Purpose – This paper aims to analyse the rise and institutionalization of the discourse of strategic management. It seeks to advance an agenda for studying strategy from a sociologically informed perspective. Moreover, it aims to make a case for a critically informed, interdisciplinary...

Purpose – The premise of the paper is that Foucault's concept of governmentality has important but unacknowledged implications for understanding strategy. Highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of the governmentality approach, the paper seeks to suggest how governmentality can be used to...

Much of the Knowledge Management (KM) literature assumes that all relevant knowledge can be represented as information and 'managed'. But the meaning of information is always context-specific and open to subsequent reinterpretation. Moving over time or between contexts affords scope for new...

In this empirical paper, we present a model of the dynamic legitimizing processes involved in the receiving and giving of compassion. We focus on the idea of being ‘worthy of compassion’ and show how ideas on giving and receiving compassion are highly contestable. Recognition of a worthy...

Hierarchy is habitually presented as the right organizational infrastructure through which to deploy and achieve strategy. We analyze the strategy process, specifically the strategy/execution debate, from the perspective of hierarchy, and contrast the hierarchical mode – where top management...

Drawing on the emerging identity work literature, this article adopts a Foucauldian perspective to further investigate how individuals deal with their moral agency in practice. To this end, we conduct an empirical case study linked to the introduction of a new management practice in a service...