1. 'Seeing to be seen': The manager's political economy of visibility in new ways of working
- Author
-
Aurélie Leclercq-Vandelannoitte, Lille économie management - UMR 9221 (LEM), Université d'Artois (UA)-Université catholique de Lille (UCL)-Université de Lille-Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), and Lille économie management - UMR 9221 [LEM]
- Subjects
Invisibility ,Strategy and Management ,media_common.quotation_subject ,Control (management) ,Identity (social science) ,Context (language use) ,Traditional authority ,Michel Foucault ,[SHS]Humanities and Social Sciences ,Power (social and political) ,Manager's identity ,Exploratory case study ,0502 economics and business ,Control ,New ways of working ,Sociology ,Manager’s identity ,AuthorityControl ,Coworking space ,Remote work ,Michel foucault ,Visibility vs invisibility ,Political economy of visibility ,Function (engineering) ,media_common ,Authority ,05 social sciences ,Visibility (geometry) ,Visibility vs Invisibility ,Political economy ,[SHS.GESTION]Humanities and Social Sciences/Business administration ,050211 marketing ,050203 business & management - Abstract
International audience; Recent changes in the world of work have modified the conditions of the exercise of management in ways that challenge managers’ traditional authority and identity, both symbolically and physically. In this context, we analyse the “visibilizing process” of managers, through which they attempt to make themselves more visible, in ways that reaffirm their authority and restore their identity as managers. To that end, we develop a Foucauldian framework on power and visibility, which sheds light on the “political economy of visibility” of the manager. We apply this framework to a case study that encouraged a re-spatialization of remote work in coworking spaces. The findings show how the manager in our case study staged his own visibility, by enhancing managerial control, to manage his invisibility and shape his intertwined identities. Through the visibilizing process, the manager legitimated his role, materialized his function, and restored his authority.
- Published
- 2020