The calculated and the avowed: Techniques of discipline and struggles over identity in Big Six public accounting firms

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Covaleski, MA; Dirsmith, MW; Heian, JB; Samuel, S
• 署名单位: University of Wisconsin System; University of Wisconsin Madison; Pennsylvania Commonwealth System of Higher Education (PCSHE); Pennsylvania State University; Pennsylvania State University - University Park; Bucknell University
• 刊物名称: ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCE QUARTERLY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0001-8392
• DOI: 10.2307/2393854
• 发表日期: 1998
• 页码: 293-327
• 关键词: LABOR PROCESS; management; POWER; time; self

摘要

An ethnographic field study in Big Six public accounting firms, where management by objectives and mentoring are used as techniques of control, examines how organizations transform professionals into disciplined and selfdisciplining organizational members whose work goals, language, and lifestyle come to reflect the imperatives of the organization. The study shows that the scope and effect of these techniques shaped the identities of organizational participants but that the discourse of professional autonomy fueled resistance to these pressures toward conformity. Implications of these results are discussed as they relate to conflict between professionals and organizations and to the critical study of organizations.