(Self) Confidence Trick: Management Ideas, Education and Identity Work

Volume 13(6): 841–860 ISSN 1350–5084 Copyright © 2006 SAGE (London, Thousand Oaks, CA Management as a (Self) and New Delhi) Conﬁdence Trick: Management Ideas, Education and Identity Work articles Andrew Sturdy Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK Michael Brocklehurst Tanaka Business School, Imperial College London, London, UK Diana Winstanley* Formerly of Kingston Business School, University of Kingston, Kingston upon Thames, UK Margaret Littlejohns Tanaka Business School, Imperial College London, London, UK

Abstract. Debates on the impact of management ideas tend to assume a mechanistic view of knowledge with its value or threat conceived of in terms of the extent to which it is directly applied in practice. This is echoed in policies and practices of management education in terms of an emphasis on practical relevance. Such debates typically neglect processual views of knowledge and, in particular, the existential and associated emotional aspects of ‘acquiring’ knowledge—learning as becoming. This article explores managers’ reflections on the consequences of studying a range of explicit management ideas within the context of the MBA. Some direct translation, combination and application of ideas is evident, along with the more indirect discursive construction of an identity as ‘strategic’ or managerial in content. However, the reverse is more evident, where opportunities for application to organizational practices are seen as inappropriate or impeded within the organization. Instead the principal outcome of ideas acquisition and the process of ‘acquiring’ them is an (albeit necessarily precarious) sense of ‘self-confidence’, which is reinforced through discourse. The MBA thus becomes a means for acquiring appropriate language fluency in management and the self-confidence to gain legitimacy and social privilege in senior management. The article

DOI: 10.1177/1350508406068501 http://org.sagepub.com Organization 13(6) Articles points to the analytical value of exploring the translation of knowledge beyond that of the transformation of ideas and of the discursive content of identity towards the existential-emotional transitions associated with ‘identity work’. It also has signiﬁcant implications for our understanding of management, management education and the centrality and bound- aries of knowledge as an organizing concept. Key words. identity; knowledge; management; MBA; ‘self-conﬁdence’; translation

The search for means through which ostensibly useful ideas and techniques can be acquired and then applied to improve organizational effectiveness has become somewhat of a holy grail. Longstanding debates about innovation and training have been complemented by more recent concerns with learning and with knowledge management, intensive firms and societies. Aside from the issue of evaluating the claimed utility of ideas and techniques, the question of their transfer and application has troubled practitioners and policy makers as well as academics. In the contexts of national governments and public and private sector organizations, facilitating the development and ‘acquisition’ of practically applicable or relevant knowledge has become a dominant imperative (e.g. Alvesson, 2004; Becker, 2001;). A concern over the applicability of management ideas and techniques is as old as the emergence and ‘scientisation’ of management itself (Littler, 1982) and continues to inform the development of management education and training (e.g. Locke, 1989). Within the UK for example, damning public reports on the quality of managers in the late 1980s combined with employers’ continued frustrations over the lack of practical relevance of formal management education (e.g. Constable and McCormick, 1987, Handy, 1987) led to various proposals to develop managerial competencies (e.g. the Management Charter Initiative). This also fuelled an era from the 1990s to date of a massive expansion of MBA programmes. Here, the emphasis in terms of marketing, syllabi and student expectations is (perhaps more so than seemingly less ambiguous vocational subjects) on providing practically relevant knowledge. The MBA Handbook (Cameron, 1997: 24) as an example of this functional skill based approach, states that ‘Ideally an MBA should develop functional, problem-solving and communication skills, as well as strategic awareness, making you more effective in your work as a manager’. Another example of the way this expectation is raised is in the marketing information for the MBA programme discussed in this research, which presents the MBA as an academic means to a business end. The means are enhanced business skills . . . The end is an exceptional business career . . . it helps you handle issues of corporate life more competently . . . gaining from your increasing knowledge . . . assisting in the future performance of the organisation by contributing fresh approaches and improved skills . . . 842 Management as a (Self) Confidence Trick Andrew Sturdy et al. While the UK context has its own dynamics, not least in terms of the historically tense relationship between academia and commerce, such developments have been evident elsewhere in Europe and beyond, in the expansion of MBAs especially (see Sturdy and Gabriel, 2000). Moreover, as managerial discourses such as strategy, customer service and entrepre- neurship come to be less contested more generally, the competitive imperative becomes more focused on the application, rather than critical evaluation, of relevant tools and techniques. This is further reinforced by a progressive managerial scepticism of ‘fads’ or ‘hype’ towards a more ‘grounded’ concern with the implementation of management ideas (Nohria et al., 2003). There is a substantial and growing literature on the ‘diffusion’ of management ideas (e.g. see Grint, 1997). Much of this focuses on the rhetoric of various promoters and neglects the ‘audience’ to which it is presented (Sturdy, 2004). There are, however, a number of studies exploring whether ideas are adopted or developed as a practice/ technique (e.g. Appelbaum and Batt, 1994; Guillen, 1994; Sturdy and Fleming, 2003) and assessing the impact of implementation on organizational performance (e.g. Staw and Epstein, 2000). At the same time, there is increasing recognition of the necessary, but varied adaptation or transmutation processes through which the form of ideas changes or is ‘re-invented’, especially in relation to institutional and cultural contexts (e.g. Kostova and Roth, 2002; Lillrank, 1995; Rogers, 1995). This links with the broader notion of translation, where ideas are not only transformed, but also change the objects and other (i.e. human) actors they come into contact with in networks of ongoing relations (Bloomfield and Best, 1992; Czarniawska and Joerges, 1996). However, in an effort to emphasize the activity of ‘inanimate’ objects, such as technological hardware, in the translation process, the transformation of human actors is underplayed and seen largely in terms of how the idea transforms the content or label of who they are or become. This transformation of actors through management ideas connects with a more critical literature. Here, attention has shifted from more traditional and structural concerns with the legitimatory or ideological power of management knowledge for (male) managerial and functional prerog- atives (e.g. Braverman, 1974; Hales, 1993; Morgan, 1983) as well as individual careers (Watson, 1986). Rather, the focus is on managerial discourses and their power effects through a more or less de-centred subject. Here, discourses shape or regulate identity, making up entrepreneurial, strategic and customer oriented ‘narratives of self’ (du Gay and Salaman, 1992; Fairclough, 1995; Grey, 1999; Parker, 1995). However, what is neglected in studies of the ‘travels’ of management ideas or discourses generally is how they transform not only the discursive form or content of identity, but also the related existential or emotional experience of it. 843 Organization 13(6) Articles This article seeks to begin to address such a neglect by drawing on research on the perceived relationship between managers’ formal studying and their day-to-day organizational practices—‘learning into practice’. It suggests that conventional notions of acquiring, translating and applying management tools and frameworks are barely significant. Rather, what we might consider to be the learning of explicit management knowledge is more the development of a form of self-confidence, but a form which both disguises and reproduces the fragility of knowledge and identity. In this sense, it might be seen as a ‘trick’ of confidence in that it is not so much what you know, but what you and others think and feel that you know and can say and that managerial (and others’) confidence is partly deceptive in terms of obfuscating its necessarily fragile nature in social contexts. The article is structured in the following way. Firstly, we introduce our processual conception of identity as it relates to management and management knowledge. We then briefly outline the research which was conducted in the context of MBA education in the UK, where one might expect the practical utility of knowledge to be especially important in terms of student expectations. We then explore this theme, moving towards a focus on identity work and the notion of self-confidence in particular. In the discussion and conclusion, we draw out some initial research and policy implications and questions for management, knowledge and management education.

Management, Knowing and Identity While much of the knowledge diffusion literature emphasizes the organizational and, sometimes, political utility of management ideas, the sub- jective experience of management and management knowledge are not entirely ignored. Psychodynamic and, to a lesser extent, institutional perspectives point to their existential or symbolic value (Jackall, 1988; Gill and Whittle, 1992; Meyer and Rowan, 1977). Again, attention is often focused on the rhetorical practices of promoters such as gurus and consultants but ideas are seen as a (sometimes self-defeating) way to assuage insecurity (Jackson, 2001; Sturdy, 1997). The implication, which is not often developed in this literature or more generally, is that management, as with other employees, is concerned with being in control existentially as well as structurally (Watson, 1994). The existential concern to secure a stable and acceptable sense of self- identity is not simply ‘noise’ which detracts from the ‘signal’ in capital’s circuits of control. Rather, it is an inescapable medium of the signal’s generation and transmission. (Willmott, 1997:1354) This theme is evident in less explicitly critical, social psychological views of management and organizing such as Weick’s notion of strategy where, regardless of the form or specific relevance of this knowledge, the experience of feeling in control is sufficient to reach the (a) destination— 844 Management as a (Self) Confidence Trick Andrew Sturdy et al. ’any old map will do’ (1987; see also Gabriel, 1995). Similarly, within the field of management learning, attention has shifted away from cognitive and utilitarian views of knowledge as object-like and capable of transfer asocially towards processual concerns (Chia, 2003; Lave and Wenger, 1991). For example Wenger sets out related dimensions of learning as not only associated with practice/doing and meaning, but with community/ belonging and, in particular, identity—learning as becoming (Lave and Wenger, 1991). Likewise, greater consideration is being given to the importance of the emotional conditions and consequences of knowledge ‘acquisition’, almost regardless of its particular form—a ‘passion’ for objectivity for example (Management Learning, 1997; Williams and Bendelow, 1996: 151). Such developments remain largely marginal to mainstream concerns with the practical utility of management knowledge and education (Contu et al., 2003). They are also theoretically rather disparate (Sturdy, 2004). However, they can be located within the broader notion of identity, at least in its processual, socio-emotional and critical formulations. In particular, Alvesson and Willmott conceptualize identity not only in the sense of its regulation (by self and others) and content in terms of narratives of self-identity/ies, but as interpretive activity or identity work. Here, identity is treated as a verb, whereby self-identity is continually reproduced and transformed (2002: 627). Following Giddens (1991; see also McAdams, 1993), such activity is often seen as directed towards achieving ‘a sense of coherence and distinctiveness’ in time and space (Sveningsson and Alvesson, 2003: 1165). However, despite this, individ- uals may also create several contradictory self (e.g. managerial) identities— a bricolage of subject positions (see also Lash, 2001; Parker, 1995). Indeed, as a number of authors have pointed out, this is partly a product of contemporary western societies and management. Sennett (1998) for example, has highlighted the fragility and fragmentation of management identities in conditions of flexibility, downsizing and changing management culture—‘How can a human being develop a narrative of identity and life history in a society composed of episodes and fragments’ (1998: 26; see also Heery and Salmon, 2000; Webb, 2004). Identity work then ‘refers to people being engaged in forming, repair- ing, maintaining, strengthening or revising’ their personal constructions or narratives (Sveningsson and Alvesson, 2003: 1165). However, this view and a concern with existential security more generally often say little of its emotional character. Anxiety is de-emotionalized as an ‘existential condition’ or pathologized as a paralysing state, especially in regard to rational management. By contrast, Mirchandani (2003) stresses the emotional work involved in constructing multiple identities as a cluster of interlocking hierarchies of race, class, gender for example. Here, managing self-feeling, making others feel in a certain way and defining one’s work brings together identity work and emotion. This is referred to elsewhere, particularly in periods of life transitions where 845 Organization 13(6) Articles emotion-identity may be experienced more acutely as well as conditions of paradox or contradiction between self-identities. If identity can be seen as not only processual and fluid, but also emotional, knowledge is an integral part of these processes, as both a medium and outcome. As we have seen, critical perspectives highlight how knowledge is central to the regulation of identity, defining the knower and what s/he is expected to be able to do. Equally and more traditionally, it is associated with status and power with some achieving or sustaining the symbolic capital of an elite group in distinction with other identities (Bourdieu, 1986). And yet, again, the interweaving of knowledge, emotion and identity work are rarely explored empirically. Clearly, management, knowledge and its mobility are not simply about existential-emotional conditions, consequences and processes. However, and much in the same way that emotion has been neglected in organizational theory more generally (Albrow, 1997), these features should be seen as integral to our understanding of the fields of knowledge, learning and management. We have linked identity to self-confidence, which is another under- utilized term in this area, but one used by many of our respondents. We define self-confidence in various ways. Firstly it does have links with ‘confidence to do’ which echoes the performative aspects of self efficacy as defined by Bandura (1977: 194) which is ‘belief in one’s capabilities to mobilise the motivation, cognitive resources and courses of action nee- ded to meet given demands’. In the context of this research, the performative aspect is particularly highlighted in managerial discourse, but also in the capacity for self-advancement in strategic career activity and taking on new roles. But more importantly for this article, it is also ‘confidence to have’ which is more to do with a sense of power, control and legitimacy—a self assurance that MBA graduates have the right to the qualification, that they match up when compared with others. Our conceptualization focuses on identity as an act of ‘becoming’, for it is in the context of the negotiation, presentation (akin to Goffman, 1969) and structuring of identity through knowledge and discourse that the emotional aspect of self-confidence is affirmed or denied. The MBA therefore provides the appropriate (e.g. strategic) language as well as the existential condition (self confidence) for material and social privilege (senior management). A confidence trick is usually seen as a form of swindle, but in this article we see it as a form of impression management that ‘takes in’ the individual themselves as much as others, as it is built on the shifting sands of knowledge, language and performance. By asserting an acquisition of self confidence, the respondents in our study are suggesting it masks its very opposite.

The Research This research reported here formed one of a number of projects exploring the relationship between management learning, ideas and practice. In 846 Management as a (Self) Confidence Trick Andrew Sturdy et al. particular, the aim was to examine a traditional concern with the application of management ideas learned through formal education. The context was managers studying part-time on a two-year Executive MBA programme in a UK-based business school. The research focus was on their motivations, expectations, learning orientations and outcomes and, our particular interest here, their perception of knowledge transfer. Clearly, such reflections are likely to vary over time, not least between the period of study itself and subsequent years. Accordingly, student volunteers were approached from graduates of different years (from 1996) as well as existing (2003) students. A total of 34 students were interviewed in depth using semi-structured interview schedules on the above themes. The exploratory research approach and the respondent selection process and availability pre- cluded the possibility of strict randomness or representativeness. Never- theless, interviewees were spread evenly in terms of graduation dates. Also, and largely in keeping with the student cohorts in general, around two-thirds were from the private sector and two-thirds were male. The respondents all volunteered to participate in the research and are therefore likely to be more participative, expressive, reflective and/or positive (or less neutral) about their experience than others. The interviews were conducted by one of the authors—a female, former manager and MBA student—and each lasted around one-and-a- half hours. They were recorded and transcribed with subsequent analysis carried out through an iterative process of reading and (Nvivo) coding in relation to emergent and a priori themes. Given our focus here on identity, it is also important to note, following Alvesson and Willmott, how the ‘research interview itself acts as an open-ended input to identity work’. Therefore, the research reported here reflects not so much identity as its interactively produced articulation which may also involve its simultaneous or subsequent reappraisal (2002: 640). Despite such nuances concerning identity, with regard to perceptions of learning, the findings were surprising in their consistency, as we shall see in the following section. For ease of presentation the responses are divided into three parts—those that relate to the application of (or failure to apply) specific techniques; those that relate to the notion of ‘self-confidence’; finally those that draw attention to matters of language.

Applying Specific Techniques? As noted, this research was driven partly by a search for the application of the specific management ideas, tools and techniques covered in formal learning environments to organizational and management contexts. Given managers/students’ strongly expressed desire for, and interest in, practically relevant tools, combined with an emphasis in the literature on the translation of ideas, a range of examples and accounts of application were expected. And indeed, some instances were reported where a 847 Organization 13(6) Articles technique from the programme syllabus or associated readings was applied, adapted and found ‘useful’. . . . I mean one of the first pieces of work I did when I moved to this organisation.. they were looking at governance issues and I applied a matrix which was in one of the strategy books that went down very well . . . (Sarah—graduate of 2000)1 I have . . . I must say, when I initially kind of put it forward . . . the customer activity cycle . . . it wasn’t very well received, but if you couch it in day to day stuff and just as an almost incidental thing dealing with the wider thing, using the customer activity cycle, that’s much better. (Kevin— graduate of 2002) However, it is important to emphasize that such instances were extremely rare. From over 50 hours of interviews with a specific and persistent focus on application, only a handful of examples were pro- vided and these were mostly rather vague references to a particular subject rather than a specific ‘idea’. While one might readily concede that it is often difficult to articulate specifically what one has learned, even with probing, especially in cases where a number of years have passed since completing formal study, it was a strongly counter-intuitive finding. Furthermore, the converse was frequently voiced. I don’t really feel that I learnt anything. I mean, things that would have been applicable. For me there wasn’t a huge amount that I’ve brought back into the workplace. (Archie—graduate of 2001) One possible explanation for this failure to apply the ideas is that there was a mismatch between the students/managers role and the course content—that these managers’ work roles were not sufficiently ‘strategic’ or senior to implement aspects of the course. Certainly this was the view of one respondent. It wasn’t easy . . . to pick out bits and apply them to my specific job . . . my role was very narrow . . . difficult to translate. (Henry—graduate of 2002) But the students on the programme were all practising managers, often in what could be described as senior and middle-management roles, with an average age of 33 and almost all of them senior enough to warrant employer sponsorship. Of course not all students expected to apply their learning in direct practice—in a parallel project we identified a range of learning orientations of which ‘practitioner’ was only one. Others included strategic career builder, networker, validator, challenger, badge collector and lover of learning. An additional reason cited for failing to apply ideas generated through the programme was that to do so was frowned upon by organizational peers. In keeping with reported managerial scepticism over ‘fads’ and jargon as well as, perhaps, ‘anti-intellectualism’ and personal resent- ments from colleagues, some respondents claimed to have to downplay or suppress any connection between their work contributions and the MBA programme. 848 Management as a (Self) Confidence Trick Andrew Sturdy et al.

Yes, I have . . . yes, sort of applied the concepts, although I haven’t told anyone I am applying it. I’m doing it, without saying . . . What I don’t want to do is encounter any sort of bad resistance. (Amir—graduate of 2003) This may not be surprising in some instances (e.g. with immediate colleagues), but indicates how the badge of identity accruing from an MBA has multiple and sometimes contradictory meanings. Furthermore, most of the students were sponsored, ostensibly in order to integrate their learning back into the organization, although it was also sometimes seen more as a perk or employee retention tactic. Some respondents claimed not to be seeking to apply specific techniques but rather to acquire a ‘broader picture’ or ‘multiple perspectives’ —‘the aerial view rather than the microscopic’. This also begins to reveal how the managers came to see themselves, and be seen, in a different and, mostly, positive way. Others would say there certainly is a broader person, with a wider range of interests. (Ben—graduate of 1996) This perception was sometimes quite diffuse, perhaps derived from the diversity of management functions covered in the MBA. For others it was more specific, in drawing on the different organizational perspectives from Organizational Behaviour or customer discourse from Marketing. Unsurprisingly, the ‘broader’ perspective was mostly associated with the discourse of strategy and therefore, becoming more ‘strategic’. Broader approach to tackling issues . . . instead of having blinkers on and tackling issues in the normal . . . (engineering) environment in which I work . . . It is more strategic thinking that is coming to the fore . . . strategy plays a bigger role now than before. It was inside-out whereas now, it is more of an outside perspective when looking at management decisions. (Henry—graduate of 2002) For one manager, this ability to see the ‘big picture’ had been achieved almost at the expense of acquiring specific skills. I think it was very generic . . . but it was remarkable considering the esteem in which the qualifications are subsequently held. I felt I knew a little about a lot, but I couldn’t have knuckled down to . . . a particular task . . . without further training. It was very generic, very broad brush. (Charlotte— graduate of 2001) The Notion of ‘Self Confidence’ This sense of acquiring a strategic or multiple perspective lay at the heart of by far the most common perception of what resulted from studying and completing the MBA—a greater sense of ‘self confidence’, a term that came up again and again in the respondents’ own words. I would have seen myself as much more narrow-minded in my approach without doing an MBA . . . I feel I am a better balanced person. I think I am more confident and stronger. I would say that I am probably more strategic from the technical perspective. I am far better at interpreting corporate 849 Organization 13(6) Articles

behaviour and I think, thinking before acting has been accentuated, so to speak. (Josh—graduate of 2001) As we have suggested above, a central dimension of the experience of confidence is the ‘confidence to have’—a sense of control and power over one’s environment. In some cases, this was perceived as being derived from the utilitarian value of better ‘informed’ decision making for organizational success. . . . you will generally come out ahead of the posse (organisational com- petitors) . . . you can step back from what is going on and have the confidence that things are going to work out the way you think they are. (Finn—graduate of 2001) This is associated with a greater sense of conviction over decision making as well as reinforcing the mainstream view that MBAs genuinely provide the necessary skills for career progression and change rather than simply a badge of ability I believe because I have greater confidence in what I know and in myself, I therefore, at least, appear and feel that I have greater conviction in the decisions that I make and I am not saying that I will make decisions rationally, but I have far more information to hand to make informed, sound decisions about things, so I will be far more likely to be a decision maker than I was before. (Kate—graduate of 2002) Greater self-confidence to tackle different things . . . More confidence to move jobs and be comfortable that I could work in different environments. (Rachel—graduate of 2000) But the sense of control experienced did not just relate to organizational performance and career development. It is intimately concerned with broader life projects and the construction of narratives of self as well as seeking to overcome existential insecurity. I think the MBA has given me confidence to make a move to do something . . . It is part and parcel of redefining what I want to do in my life. (Nicol— first year student) And I think you become . . . the whole MBA has made me into a more . . . relaxed I suppose, professional, rather than somebody who is always questioning their own knowledge and ability. (Ian—first year student) Indeed, self-confidence has performative effects regardless of the acquisition of particular cognitive skills. I perform quite differently now. I am a very different person. I perform in situations quite differently from before. (Wendy—graduate of 2001). Clearly, such identity work has a comparative dimension and occurs through reflection in relation to others, such as work colleagues and fellow students. I walked in on the first day and there were all these very clever people doing lots of different things in different industries with different functional responsibilities. And you think, well, everyone must be very clever 850 Management as a (Self) Confidence Trick Andrew Sturdy et al.

and I felt by the end of it, well, I could cut it with any of them. So my confidence in my own managerial abilities has improved. (Nick—graduate of 2002) This is not surprising given some students came to the course to validate themselves or their knowledge and approaches, or alternatively to challenge themselves, to see whether they could ‘match up’. Language Matters However, there remains an inconsistency in the accounts and our analysis. If respondents generally disregarded the tools and techniques as being of value—even the explicit tools and techniques of strategy—then what else lies behind such an apparently pronounced and widespread sense of increased self-confidence? A closer examination of the managers’ responses showed that the acquisition of the language or discourse of business and management—‘the ability to speak with a certain air of authority’—was vital. I don’t think the learning is very deep. I think you can be more convincing by the way that you talk . . . (Kate—graduate of 2002) The approach and the confidence to speak. The MBA gives you the ability to stand up in front of anybody in a conversation and talk through a business perspective. (Ian—first year student) In this way, one could characterize the MBA as a form of language training. This, combined with the acquisition of a rather diffuse notion of a ‘broader’ or ‘strategic’ perspective (a grammatical framework?), resulted in a sense of increased self-confidence—language as therapy perhaps.

Discussion—Identity Work, Self Confidence and Language: ‘Welcome to The Party’ Overall then, despite forming the bulk of the MBA syllabus and lying at the heart of student expectations and business school promises, specific and applicable managerial tools and techniques were largely dismissed as an outcome of the learning process for these managers and part-time students. Rather, the strategic perspective and the acquisition of a specific managerial discourse was seen as useful both in terms of decision making and career progression. This contributed to a sense of increased self-confidence and legitimized their adoption and enactment of the identity as managers entitled to management’s privileges. This was generally perceived as the strongest outcome of the MBA experience and qualification. The consequence was a change in the perception of self; a self that is more sharply perceived, less ambiguous, more keenly felt and one more positively valued in emotional terms. It was seen to derive partially from a sense of control over one’s work and career as well as to assuage anxieties over identity in relation to others and to life projects and changes. In addition, an important element was seen to be the 851 Organization 13(6) Articles acquisition of a particular, and privileged, language with its associated performative effects. One manager’s account of her experience, Joy (graduate, 2001), brings together and extends many of these themes. We therefore give an expan- ded excerpt from this student’s interview before elaborating on our analysis: I wanted a change of direction, so I would call it a mid-life crisis. . . . I wanted to move from my professional role into a managerial role . . . I wanted that badge that said I could be let into the party. I wanted something that would open opportunities. . . . I have got the language now . . . it certainly has carried the credibility that has let me into the party . . . I perform quite differently now. I am a very different person. Almost every step, phrase I use, everything is quite different . . . I can hold conversations differently than before . . . (At work) they need the professionals to be able to talk the language which crosses over into the management side of things. And I think they accept having someone who is basically bilingual—it’s really helpful. . . . (Take for example) customer focus, . . . I was quite surprised at the level of jargon . . . and its been great to have the confidence to know what that means, because most people see it as rhetoric, they don’t know what it means, and they don’t have insight into it. . . . If you want a metaphor . . . it’s like the C.S. Lewis picture, it’s like opening the little wardrobe and there is another world out there . . . and for two years I just walked through that wardrobe door into a different world . . . and it was a world with a completely different language. . . . and it was a major change phase for me in my life, . . . it’s a metamorphosis, . . . a personal change . . . caterpillar to the butterfly . . . I mean, I changed identity, that’s what I did. So it wasn’t just moving upwards and onwards, but . . . I’m just a different person. It’s almost Jekyll and Hyde . . . it’s just unrecognisable . . . it was something about putting on a new set of clothes, the language did it for me—that meant that I would see quite differently and see myself differently and so I enter into different conversations, I look at different jobs. This account was not so much typical of others; rather it suggests the experience of a very distinct and extreme identity transformation result- ing from the MBA as well as extensive prior, as well as contemporaneous, identity work on the part of the interviewee. However, it illustrates well the more widespread and planned concern with becoming less identified with a particular functional specialism or profession and with the status, social and career benefits accruing from the MBA—the ‘party’. Also, given a general and continuing cultural preoccupation with some consistency in identity narratives and the transformational metaphors and analogies used, there are strong emotional undertones implicit in this process of ‘learning as becoming’. This is, perhaps, unsurprising, albeit from a rather extreme and articulate account. However, what is also evident is the lack of importance attached to particular practical tools or concepts and the perceived centrality of language to these identity processes. It is almost as if Joy was consciously setting out a post-structuralist account of management. As far as we can tell, this was certainly not the intention, but her view and its echoes among other respondents warrant a more, but 852 Management as a (Self) Confidence Trick Andrew Sturdy et al. not exclusively, discursive conception of identity as well as of self confidence, management and management knowledge. The strongly discursive element of identity is reflected in the dom- inance of the view of identity formation and transformation through more (or less) consistent narratives of self. However, this need not be associated with an essentialist position whereby subjects are always and everywhere creatures of narrative to sustain a meaningful sense/s of self (Bruner 2004). Moreover, without recourse to discursive reductionism, emotional and practice-orientated elements of identity can be seen as necessarily, but partially, discursive. This is evident in relation to recent sociological views of emotions such as self-confidence, as not simply expressions of inner processes, but multi-dimensional (thinking, feeling, moving) ’modes of communication’ which are both cultural (i.e. discursive) and corporeal/embodied (Burkitt 1997:37, emphasis added). Likewise the notion of ‘speech acts’ such as ‘I do’ in wedding vows (Austin, 1962) or more generally as a central aspect of administration— talk as the work (Gronn, 1983)—suggest the performative nature of language. In other words, identity construction, as ‘husband’ or ‘manager’, for example is achieved through language. In the same way, and as we have seen, the language of the MBA becomes performative as the student/manager acquires the MBA/strategic identity through using particular (e.g. customer) discourses. Performativity is then, a reiterative and a citational practice by which discourse produces the effects that it names (Butler, 1997). The language as it is practiced becomes part of the positioning of students within their life projects to become managers, or at least different to their former self narratives. Although only sometimes evident in the managers’ accounts, or asser- tions, of their acquired sense of self confident (i.e. managerial/strategic) selves, it is important to emphasize the necessarily precarious nature or ‘shakiness’ of self-identity (Alvesson, 2004). Firstly, it is a process and therefore not ever achieved as such. Secondly, managers, as others, organize narratives from multiple and often competing discursive inter- actions (Whittington, 1992) and this leads to both change and threats to a sense of coherence, not least where the new ‘strategic’ identity coexists with former ‘professional’ constructions.2 This need not undermine self confidence however, as, contrary to Giddens (1991) and McAdam (1993), our work suggests that for some students, multiple and fragmented identities may be closer to their experience and desire in ‘parallel worlds’. But this is not a product of some form of free floating decision, for identity and its emotional-discursive processes arise from social relationships of power and interdependence. Confidence in this form is only sustainable so long as the discourse of strategic control and the ordering of subjects in relation to the discourse continues to be powerful and therefore meaningful both to subjects themselves and others. Indeed and as we have seen, there are always counter-discourses which stigmatize it as ‘bullshit’ or as no replacement 853 Organization 13(6) Articles for confidence founded on ‘down to earth’ or ‘seat of the pants’ management for example (see also Blanchard and Johnson 1993). Alternatively, in the case of the MBA, where the rituals of transition often provoke intensive identity work, alternative lifestyles or discourses of ‘opting out’ may emerge, fuelled in part by relatively privileged material circum- stances. Indeed, identity is never autonomous, but fundamentally relational in character. As Weick states: ‘how can I know who I am until I see what they do?’ (1995: 23). Hence, any given identity and its status is always provisional and subject to revision. Moreover, no matter how confident a subject may feel there is always anxiety; indeed the more self-confident a subject feels, then potentially the greater the anxiety since there is so much more to lose. However, this is not an anxiety borne simply out of the social pressures of a group. There are more wide ranging power relations in play, shaping what is currently acceptable (‘fashionable’) as managerial discourse—a form of identity regulation or managing the ‘insides’ of workers (Deetz, 1995). More generally of course, managers are also rendered anxious from their position as employees, individualized and preoccupied with their organizational performance and careers (Garsten and Grey, 1997; Willmott, 1997: 1354). Furthermore, internal tensions within discourses (e.g. customers or profits) or unintended consequences of discursive performances where expectations of the MBA are not realized help render anxiety a necessary feature of identity formation and of its specific enabling and constraining forms within management.

Conclusion Recent critiques of mechanistic, cognitive and utilitarian views of management, knowledge, learning and education have pointed to the importance of processual, emotional, discursive and/or existential dimensions of these activities. We have sought to bring these critical insights together within the context of research on management education. In particular, it has been argued that although the experience of gaining a multiple or strategic perspective or language was seen as having some managerial ‘use value’, the principal experiential outcome of learning was a related sense of self confidence. The popular, policy and promotional preoccupation with practical tools and concepts was either invisible or dismissed by the managers. Rather, what we labelled as ‘identity work’ or ‘learning as becoming’ was seen as crucial. It is not simply that managers become discursively (performatively) constituted as strategic, customer-focussed or entrepreneurial for example, but actively (and discursively) reflect upon and emotionally value the experience as part of one or more ongoing narratives of self. Moreover, self confidence helps them provide an existential tool of management control, often fuelled by career progression and the material privilege it brings. It is this, rather than scarce practical skills, that gets them ‘into the party’. 854 Management as a (Self) Confidence Trick Andrew Sturdy et al. In this way, the MBA might be better seen as a form of therapeutic language training within life projects than a funnel for learning explicit management ideas to further organizational and national competitive- ness. However, we have also argued that securing a sense of self is a necessarily fragile process, a condition and consequence of a sense of insecurity. This fragility is associated with the interdependent and processual, and therefore mutable, nature of social relations and identities. Strategic discourses, as well as those of identity and self confidence (see Rose, 1989), need to be sustained by others through practices within power relations. Indeed, our emphasis on existential and emotional characteristics of knowledge/knowing is not distinct from a concern with management and its specific forms of power. Rather, and as we have argued, management and managerial identities are not simply concerned with conventional practices or, even particular discourses but also the (self) regulation of identity and existential control. In particular, a crucial part of management can be seen as a trick of self confidence in the sense of the identity work involved in seeking to sustain a fixed sense of independent control, through strategic discourses for example, in conditions of fluidity, subjection-opportunity and interdependence. Effectively becoming an MBA then, involves a performance that has to be credible to the student and others and, ironically, the necessity for this performance at all suggests its fragility. Clearly, it is important to locate these arguments about management and the MBA in the context of our research, based upon MBA students, past and present, on a particular course. The MBA is often presented as an opportunity to change careers or move from middle to senior management—in short as a pivotal moment. It is likely to encourage intensive identity work and its associated anxiety, which may not be the case for other forms of management education and training or day-to-day management practice. Moreover, our self-selected participants are likely to favour a narrative mode of reflection, although not all of them felt the MBA to be especially significant in their ‘life projects’. We also echo our earlier reference to Alvesson and Wilmott who note how interviews ‘do not measure the “truth” of identity but interactively provoke its articulation’ (2002: 640). But this does not simply apply to research techniques. The same could be said of personal reflections and other conversations. Moreover, the strength, commonality and counter-intuitive nature of the perceived insignificance of applicable techniques compared to the language of strategy and of self confidence, at the very least warrants further research. This might explore the existential, emotional and processual nature of knowledge and management discourses more directly rather than rely on its emergence as an unintended research outcome. What are the policy implications of the arguments presented? The MBA has been positioned as a primary conduit for new management ideas and techniques to nourish and bolster flagging management practice in the UK and elsewhere. It has been a cornerstone of policy for 855 Organization 13(6) Articles building management knowledge through relevant business education, championed by policy makers and many management educationalists alike. If, as our analysis suggests, ideas and techniques are not applied in any direct or even translated sense, perhaps both managers and the State should be seeking the provision of discrete training courses devoted to specific tools and techniques. It is important to note, however, that to expect direct application of even training is an heroic assumption given that translation and transformation, rather than application, is more the order of the day (Buckley and Caple, 1995). Moreover, there is no reason to suppose that such relatively explicit and practical skills will not be associated with similar processual, existential and power effects. Of course, one, liberal, defence of the MBA is that it is not about training, but education, about exposing students to new and scarcely distributed perspectives and modes of thought. Indeed, our observation of the MBA as providing the appropriate language (strategy) and existential condition (self confidence) for material and social privilege (senior management) can be made of other educational institutions such as public schools and ‘Oxbridge’ and other universities in the UK. However, adopting an identity-discourse-emotion perspective highlights the necessarily problematic and provisional nature of such practices, or processes. At the same time, if the MBA were to lose support, this would necessarily involve the emergence of other (e.g. counter) discourses that speak to those who strive to be senior managers (and management academics) (Parker, 2003). For the time being, despite periodic, including contemporary, claims of its approaching demise, the MBA and management con- tinue to retain their prestige. It is worth noting however, that the etymology of the term ‘prestige’ is as ‘a conjuring trick’, an ‘illusion’, ‘deceitful’ (Chambers 20th Century Dictionary). Magicians and conjurors experience anxiety that their tricks will be revealed so eliminating their ‘raison d’etre’. We conclude by pointing to the similarly precarious nature of the confidence generated from undertaking an MBA and the management discourses associated with it.

Notes *This article is dedicated to Diana Winstanley whose loss as a much loved friend and colleague is felt deeply by all the authors as well as all those who had the privilege of working with her. Comments on an earlier draft from Karen Handley, Mats Alvesson and the anonymous reviewers are gratefully appreciated along with the participation of Executive MBA students at ‘Anon’ Business School and funding from Imperial College London. 1 All respondents’ names have been anonymized. 2 The fragility of managerial identity and the associated insecurity can also be understood historically, in relation to the ‘established’ professions where a trick of self-confidence has been more firmly embedded and, perhaps, less visible. 856 Management as a (Self) Confidence Trick Andrew Sturdy et al. References Albrow, M. (1997) Do Organizations Have Feelings? London: Routledge. Alvesson, M. (2004) Knowledge Work and Knowledge-Intensive Firms. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Alvesson, M. and Willmott, H. (2002) ‘Identity Regulation as Organizational Control—Producing the Appropriate Individual’, Journal of Management Studies 39(5): 619–44. Appelbaum, E. and Batt, R. (1994) The New American Workplace. Ithaca, NY: ILR Press. Austin, J. L. (1962) How To Do Things With Words. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Bandura, A. (1977) ‘Self Efficacy: Towards a Unifying Theory of Behavioural Change’ Psychological Review 84(2): 191–215. Becker, G. S. (2001) ‘Talking Human Capital with Gary S. Becker’, Learning in the New Economy, Spring at www.linezine.com, cited in CIPD (2002) How Do People Learn? Research Report. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Blanchard, K. and Johnson, S. (1993) The One Minute Manager. London: Fon- tana. Bloomfield, B. and Best, A. (1992) ‘Management Consultants: Systems Develop- ment, Power and the Translation of Problems’, Sociological Review 40(3): 533–60. Bourdieu, P. (1986) Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. London: Routledge. Braverman, H. (1974) Labor and Monopoly Capitalism. New York, NY: Monthly Review Press. Bruner, J. (2004) Making Stories: Law, Literature and Life. Cambridge, MA: Harvard. Buckley, R. and Caple, J. (1995) The Theory and Practice of Training, 3rd edn. London: Kogan Page. Burkitt, I. (1997) ‘Social Relationships and Emotions’, Sociology 31(1): 37–55. Butler, J. (1997) Excitable Speech: A Politics of The Performative. London: Routledge. Cameron, S. (1997) The MBA Handbook: Study Skills for Managers, 3rd edn. London: Pitman Publishing. Chia, R. (2003) ‘From Knowledge Creation to the Perfecting of Action—Tao, Basho and Pure Experience as the Ultimate Ground of Knowing’, Human Relations 56(8): 953–81. Constable, J. and McCormick, R. (1987) The Making of British Managers. London: BIM/CBI. Contu, A. and Willmott, H. (2003) ‘Re-Embedding Situatedness: The Importance of Power Relations in Learning Theory’, Organization Science 14(3): 283–96 Contu, A., Grey, C. and Ortenblad, A. (2003) ‘Against Learning’, Human Relations 56(8): 931–52. Czarniawska, B. and Joerges, B. (1996) ‘Travels of Ideas’, in B. Czarniawska and G. Sevon (eds) Translating Organizational Change. Berlin: De Gruyter. Deetz, S. (1995) Transforming Communication, Transforming Business: Building Responsive and Responsible Workplaces. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press. du Gay, P. and Salaman, G. (1992) ‘The Cult(ure) of the Customer’, Journal of Management Studies 29(5): 615–33. 857 Organization 13(6) Articles

Fairclough, N. (1995) Critical Discourse Analysis. Harlow: Longman. Fineman, S., ed. (2000) Emotion in Organizations, 2nd edn. London: Sage. Gabriel, Y. (1995) ‘The Unmanaged Organisation’, Organisation Studies 16(3): 477–501. Garsten, C. and Grey, C. (1997) ‘How to Become Oneself: Discourses of Sub- jectivity in Post-bureaucratic Organizations’, Organization 4(2): 211–28. Giddens, A. (1991) Modernity and Self-Identity. Oxford: Polity Press. Gill, J. and Whittle, S. (1992) ‘Management by Panacea: Accounting for Tran- sience’, Journal of Management Studies 30(2): 281–95. Goffman, E. (1969) The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life. London: Penguin. Grey, C. (1999) ‘We Are All Managers Now?’, Journal of Management Studies 36(5): 561–86. Grint, K. (1997) ‘TQM, BPR, JIT, BSCs and TLAs: Managerial Waves or Drown- ings’, Management Decision 35(10): 731–38. Gronn, P. C. (1983) ‘Talk as the Work—The Accomplishment of School Admin- istration’, Administrative Science Quarterly 28: 1–21. Guillen, M. F. (1994) Models of Management: Work, Authority and Organization in a Comparative Perspective. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press. Hales, C. (1993) Management Through Organisation. London: Routledge. Handy, C. (1987) The Making of Managers. London: MSC/NEDO/BIM. Heery, E. and Salmon, J., ed. (2000) The Insecure Workforce. London: Rout- ledge. Jackall, R. (1988) Moral Mazes—The World of Corporate Managers. Oxford: OUP. Jackson, B. (2001) Management Gurus and Management Fashions. London: Routledge. Kostova, T. and Roth, K. (2002) ‘Adoption of an Organizational Practice by Subsidiaries of MNCs: Institutional and Relational Effects’, Academy of Man- agement Journal 45(1): 215–33. Lash, S. (2001) ‘Introduction’ in U. Beck and Gernsheim, E. Beck (eds) Individual- ization: Institutionalised Individualism and its Social and Political Conse- quences. London: Sage. Lave, J. and Wenger, E. (1991) Situated Learning—Legitimate Peripheral Partici- pation. New York: Cambridge University Press. Lillrank, P. (1995) ‘The Transfer of Management Innovations from Japan’, Organi- zation Studies 16(6): 971–89. Littler, C. R. (1982) The Development of the Labour Process in Capitalist Soci- eties. London: Heinemann. Locke, R. L. (1989) Management Education and Higher Education Since 1940—The Inﬂuence of America on West Germany, Great Britain and France. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Management Learning (1997) ‘Special Issue—Emotion and Learning in Organisa- tions’, 28: 1. Mangham, I. and Silver, M. (1986) Management in the UK. London: ESRC/DTI. McAdams, D. P. (1993) The Stories We Live by: Personal Myths and the Making of the Self. New York, NY: Guilford. Meyer, J. W. and Rowan, B. (1977) ‘Institutionalized Organizations—Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony’, American Journal of Sociology 83(2): 340–63. 858 Management as a (Self) Conﬁdence Trick Andrew Sturdy et al.

Mirchandani, K. (2003) ‘Challenging Racial Silences in Studies of Emotion Work: Contributions from Anti-racist Feminist Theory, Organization Studies 24(5); 721–42. Nohria, N., Joyce, W. and Roberson, B. (2003) ‘What Really Works’, Harvard Business Review 81(7): 42–55. Parker, M. (1995) ‘Working Together, Working Apart: Management Culture in a Manufacturing Firm’, Sociological Review 43(3): 518–47. Parker, M. (2003) Against Management. Cambridge: Polity. Rogers, E. M. (1995) Diffusion of Innovations, 4th edn. New York, NY: Free Press. Sennett, R. (1998) The Corrosion of Character. London: Norton and Co. Staw, B. M. and Epstein, L. D. (2000) ‘What Bandwagons Bring—Effects of Popular Management Techniques on Corporate Performance, Reputation and CEO Pay’, Administrative Science Quarterly 45(3): 523–56. Sturdy, A. J. (1997) ‘The Consultancy Process— An Insecure Business?’, Journal of Management Studies 34(3): 389–413. Study, A. J. and Fleming, P. (2003) ‘Talk as Technique—A Critique of the Words and Deeds Distinction in the Diffusion of Customer Service Cultures’, Journal of Management Studies 40(5): 753–73. Sturdy, A. J. and Gabriel, Y. (2000) ‘Missionaries, Mercenaries or Car Salesmen?— MBA Teaching in Malaysia’, Journal of Management Studies 37(7): 979–1002. Sturdy, A. J. (2004) ‘The Adoption of Management Ideas and Practices— Theoretical Perspectives and Possibilities’, Management Learning 35(2): 155–79. Sveningsson, S. and Alvesson, M. (2003) ‘Managing Managerial Identities: Organ- izational Fragmentation, Discourse and Identity Struggle’, Human Relations 56(10): 1163–94. Watson, T. J. (1986) Management, Organisation and Employment Strategy. Lon- don: Routledge. Watson, T. J. (1994) In Search of Management: Culture Chaos and Control in Managerial Work. London: Routledge. Webb, J. (2004) ‘Organizations, Self-Identities and the New Economy’, Sociology 38(4): 719–38. Weick, K. E. (1987) ‘Substitutes for Strategy’ in D. J. Teece (ed.) The Competitive Challenge. New York, NY: Ballinger. Weick, K. E. (1995) Sensemaking in Organizations. London: Sage Whittington, R. (1992) ‘Putting Giddens into Action: Social Systems and Manage- rial Agency’, Journal of Management Studies 29(4): 693–712. Williams, S. J. and Bendelow, G. A. (1996) ‘Emotions and “Sociological Imperialism”—A Rejoinder to Craib’, Sociology 30(1): 145–53. Willmott, H. (1997) ‘Rethinking Management and Managerial Work—Capitalism, Control and Subjectivity’, Human Relations 50(11): 1329–59.

Andrew Sturdy is Professor of Organisational Behaviour at Warwick Business School, University of Warwick. His teaching and research are focused on the global and local translation of management ideas and practices with particular interests in the role of management consultancy and management education. Address: Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, Coventry, CV4 7AL, UK. [email: [email protected]] 859 Organization 13(6) Articles

Michael Brocklehurst is Senior Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour at the Tanaka Business School, Imperial College London. He has previously lectured at a number of higher education institutions in Canada, Hong Kong and the UK. His current research interests are in managerial identity and careers. Address: Tanaka Business School, Imperial College London, London, UK. [email: [email protected]]

Diana Winstanley was, until her recent and tragic death, Professor of HRM at Kingston Business School, Kingston University. She specialised in management development and published widely in this ﬁeld, including ‘Personnel Effectiveness’ (2005, published by the CIPD, UK). She was also a trained humanistic counsellor and an executive member of European Business Ethics Network. Her research interests were in the areas of learning, development, diversity and business ethics.

Margaret Littlejohns worked in training and risk management for City Bank and is a former Research Associate and MBA graduate of Tanaka Business School, Impe- rial College London. She has conducted research into charity management and is a trustee for two charities. She is currently a ﬁnancial consultant. Address: C/O Tanaka Business School, Imperial College London, London, UK.

860