Stuck in the Middle with You?
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.00039 |
| Date | 01 March 1997 |
| Published date | 01 March 1997 |
| Author | Simon Lilley |
Introduction
‘Remember that the professor, the teacher, is paid
to be suspicious, sceptical and argumentative.
That’s our job . . . And so when a businessman
meets a professor, you can see the shutters go
over their eyes and their eyes tighten as each faces
his mortal antagonist; the man [sic] whose life
depends on accepting assumptions up against the
man whose life depends on questioning them.’
(Gurney, quoted in Punch, 1981, reproduced in
Huczynski, 1993, p. 175)
Much is made of the difference between
managers and critical management researchers,
particularly by the latter, but little is said about
what makes them the same. This paper seeks to
redress this imbalance. It represents an attempt to
increase empathy between critical management
researchers and the subjects/objects of their study.
Via (yet) another reflexive turn, critical manage-
ment researchers are enjoined to explore the
similarities between the moves that they deploy
to critique managerial discourses and practices,
and the moves deployed by managers within
those self same discourses and practices. Whilst
there do seem to be significant differences be-
tween the worlds of managers and those of critical
management researchers, as well as between their
espoused aims within those worlds, there do
seem to be significant similarities between the
two groups, particularly in terms of the rhetorical
devices and styles that they deploy to make their
accounts of their worlds convincing. In turn,
it is suggested that these similarities themselves
reflect other similarities between the practising
managerial and critical managerial domains. Both
realms are inhabited by bodies held to account for
their ‘products’ and both present opportunities
and threats for the maintenance of identity. These
practical and existential similarities seem to be at
least as important as any differences that may be
seen to exist between the two groups. Managers
and critical management researchers may be con-
sidered to be playing similar games, with similar
rules, for different teams. And although critical
management researchers seem adept at critiquing
moves made by practising managers, they seem to
be far less keen to address the issues that they
raise about others in relation to themselves. The
paper explores the implications of similarities
between the two groups, with particular reference
to the role that they play in the provision of
the conditions of possibility for hotly contested
battles across those divisions that the various
protagonists construct.
British Journal of Management, Vol. 8, 51–59 (1997)
Stuck in the Middle with You?*
Simon Lilley
Department of Management, Keele University, Staffordshire ST5 5BG, UK
This paper examines similarities between the worlds of managers and critical manage-
ment researchers. It attempts to illustrate the practices of division in which both sets
of actors are engaged. Through a comparison of the contexts of managerial and critical
managerial action, coupled with the use of Burke’s (1969) notion of the scapegoat, the
paper suggests that battles between academic disciplines and across the academy/
practice divide may be more productively recognized as essential resources for identity
work and self care. The paper concludes with a brief consideration of the value of the
approach suggested.
© 1997 British Academy of Management
* Thanks are due to Rolland Munro, Peter Case, Brad
Jackson, David Knights and Fenton Robb for com-
ments upon earlier drafts of this paper. Any errors that
remain are of course my own.
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