Robert Halsall

The Discourse of Corporate Cosmopolitanism

This paper examines how the ideal of cosmopolitan identity is represented in selected popular global management texts. It is argued that the corporate cosmopolitan ideal of a flexible identity draws interdiscursively on two main discourses. First, there is the Enlightenment ideal of cosmopolitanism, expressed as a moral imperative towards detachment from existing cultural identities and loyalties in the name of the adoption of a universal perspective. This is reflected in the rhetoric of the necessity for managers and employees to ‘transform’ themselves from ‘locals’ into ‘cosmopolitans’. This uplifting rhetoric of ‘transformation’, however, is accompanied by the more prosaic discourse of cosmopolitanism as a competence in ‘managing culture’ which can be acquired by all. Second, ‘corporate cosmopolitanism’ draws on a ‘postmodern’ ideal of a flexible ‘pastiche’ identity, distanced through irony from all existing cultural and other ‘hot’ loyalties. This discourse is personified in the image of the ‘hybrid’ as the ideal corporate cosmopolitan. It is argued that corporate cosmopolitanism represents, not a utopia in which cultural difference and diversity is respected and celebrated, but a dystopia in which cultural difference is made superfluous by the establishment of a flexible transnational capitalist class with no attachment to or responsibility for place.

Askēsis and organizational culture

This article makes the case for the contribution of the cultural theory of Sloterdijk and the tradition of philosophical anthropology on which it is based to an understanding of the processes of culture formation in organizations. Rather than see culture formation as the model of an autonomous self which sacrifices or gives up this autonomy as a result of identification with the organizational culture, or retains it by resisting or distancing from the culture, the article argues that we should see organizational selves as engaged in processes of askēsis, understood as ‘systems of spiritual exercises, … practised in collectives of personalised regimes’ (Sloterdijk, 2009: 12), the aim of which is the fulfilment of the imperative ‘you must change your life!’ (Sloterdijk, 2009). The article illustrates the application of the theory to the formation of ‘secessionist’ cultures, cultures devoted to the pursuit of radical ascetic aims, by outlining the mechanisms of askēsis in contemporary organizations: the splitting of the self into ‘willing’ and ‘unwilling’ elements which are in constant ‘endo-rhetorical’ dialogue; the imitation of exemplars of ascetic behaviour, or the ‘perfectionist vita’; ‘conversion’ to the organizational culture, whether as a sudden experience or as a gradual process, and organizational cultures understood as ‘cultures of observance’, the aim of which are to encourage the employee to scrutinize habitual behaviour and change this behaviour in line with the ideals of the secessionist culture. The end point of askēsis is reached when the employee conceives organizational life itself as a continual ‘test’ of commitment and will.

Signs of crisis and recovery: Geographical imaginaries in press coverage of the financial crisis in the UK and German press 2008–2009

This article examines the role of models of capitalism in the media coverage surrounding the economic crisis in the period 2008–2009 in the UK and German press, during the outbreak of the crisis and the beginning of the ‘recovery’ from it. Models of capitalism are conceived of as ‘geographical imaginaries’, discursive entities by means of which nations mediate their economic fortunes vis-à-vis global capitalism. By drawing upon historical narratives and stereotypical attributions of national character, these models legitimize courses of political and economic action. A Critical Discourse Analysis of media texts is carried out in selected periods of the crisis in these two countries whose economic models have been held to be opposing ‘geographical adversaries’ in the history of neoliberalism. The article draws conclusions about the nature of ‘recovery’ from the point of view of such geographical imaginaries, and their importance in the continued dominance of neoliberalism.

The role of CEO (auto-) biographies in the dissemination of neo-ascetic leadership styles

This paper attempts to relate the critical analysis of religious or “sacred” metaphors in leadership to the theory of askēsis, the idea of leader as an incarnation of a virtue defined as “the formation of a full, perfect, complete and self-sufficient relationship with oneself.” A model of leadership based on askēsis, it is argued, is established by means of the form of rhetoric called the exemplum, by means of which leaders derive authority from their being held to be a living (or dead) incarnation of an ideal of perfection, and their life being narrated as a “perfectionist vita.” The principal means of communication of this exemplarity is the hagiography, which finds its contemporary equivalent in the popular CEO (auto-) biography, which can be interpreted as a reactivation of ancient hagiographic archetypes. In readings of three leader hagiographies, focusing on the narrative, rhetorical, and discursive strategies employed, it is shown how the dubious moral exemplarity of such individuals is established. The paper concludes with a discussion of the differences and analogies between the medieval hagiography and the contemporary CEO (auto-) biography, and a discussion of the relationship between asceticism and charisma in the light of these examples.

From ‘business culture’ to ‘brand state’: conceptions of nation and culture in business literature on cultural difference

This article examines changing conceptions of culture and nation in business literature from the early 1990s to the present. In the early 1990s the growth of literature concerned with depicting the cultural differences between national varieties of capitalism and business systems seemingly betokened an interest in diversity in the business world. This seeming interest in cultural diversity, however, concealed an implicit neo‐liberal teleology which implies a convergence hypothesis and change in the cultural role of the nation state to that of a ‘location manager’, whose role is merely to guarantee favourable conditions for business with the minimum of state intervention. This reconceptualisation of the nation leads to the ultimate stage in this teleology, the discourse of the ‘brand state’, in which ‘culture’ is seen as just equivalent to those aspects of a country’s ‘brand equity’ which meet the requirements of instant recognisability to the outside world.

Corporate global nomadism: The role of the transnational professional as consumer of popular management discourses:

An increasing body of research has paid particular attention to the role of different organizational actors in the consumption of popular management ideas, including their local diffusion, adaptation and enactment. However, with a few exceptions, these studies mostly focus on the organizational setting, thus neglecting the consumption of these kinds of discourses in other environments. Drawing on narrative analysis, this study follows this line of research by examining the ways in which a category of transnational professionals perceive and represent the discourse of corporate ‘global nomadism’ as part of their everyday life. This article contributes to management education by providing a critical approach to the ambiguous experiences involved in the ‘nomadic’ lifestyle that generally conflict with the idealized and glamourous views of corporate global mobility. In this way, a more rounded, critical and ultimately ethical type of management education for transnational mobility can be produced than currently is the case.

LADENSCHLUSS REVISITED: Will Germany learn to love shopping on a Sunday?

In my article for this journal on the 1996 ‘Ladenschlussdebatte’ (debate on shop opening hours), I pointed out various features of the debate which have resurfaced in the renewed debate on shop opening hours which took place in Germany during 1999 and is still ongoing.1 The 1996 debate, whilst on the surface about shopping hours, economics and business policy was, on a more fundamental level, about cultural values of symbolic importance within post-war Germany: the desire for consensus and compromise amongst interest groups characteristic of the social market model on the one hand, and the free market values of liberalism on the other. The 1996 debate, in other words, had to be understood as part of the wider debate about deregulation, the role of the state and ‘Standort Deutschland’, the viability of Germany as a business location, which has been ongoing in Germany.