Managerialism and Lifestyles of Executives

• Autor(a) principal: Tonon, Leonardo
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Outros Autores: Grisci, Carmem Ligia Iochins
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: RAM. Revista de Administração Mackenzie
• Texto Completo: https://editorarevistas.mackenzie.br/index.php/RAM/article/view/4785
• topic: Managerialism. Subjectivity. Lifestyles. Executives. Contemporaneity.; Gerencialismo. Subjetividad. Estilos de vida. Ejecutivos. Contemporaneidad.; Gestão Gerencialista. Subjetividade. Estilos de vida. Executivos. Contemporaneidade.

The lifestyles of the liquid-modern society (Bauman, 2001, 2007), are associated with performance indicators linked to short-term and obsolescence, which are aligned with managerialism (Gaulejac, 2007). Such management, composed essentially by ideological characteristics, takes advantage of the discourses linked to efficiency and effectiveness to create a false neutrality of management in the workplace. The managerialism becomes importante also to expand the most diverse requirements beyond the companies, contributing to other spheres of life turns to be produced in the manner defined by management. In this context it is important to devote attention to the executives, since they are characterized as icons of (re)production of lifestyles (Tanure et al., 2007; Gaulejac, 2007; Boltanski & Chiapelo, 2009). From this, the following question emerged: what are the possible influences of managerialism that are present in the production of the lifestyles of executives? Hence, the objective to understand which elements of the managerialism promote the (re)production of the lifestyles of executives was brought up. In order to do so,  the life story approach was adopted. The life stories of two executives, which elaboration was based on the conduct of in-depth interviews and analysis was done in the light of the relevant literature, allow the observation of a set of elements that foster the (re)production of the executives lifestyles. These elements are: the glamorization of the executive world; the constant pressure daily experienced at  work; depersonalization of the worker, who is evaluated based on indexes and results; and the relationship with the family, closely achieved by the logic of management. By producing an individual who finds himself seduced by the glamour, the managerialism presents its facet of production machine and social control, since its resulting styles are lifestyles and not only a portion of life. This feature, to a certain extent, instills characteristics and compensatory feelings that mask the suffering or even the power and domination mechanisms that exist in such managerial stream.