Contemplation and the ‘Performative Absolute’: submission and identity in managerial modernity

Abstract

Practices derived from the ‘vita contemplativa’ and other spiritual sources are drawn upon by management, but as the power of human resources management (HRM) is extended so the relationship between ‘contemplation’ and the surrender of self-identity required by HRM demands critical examination. The conscious construction of the individual has become a social and political goal. Subjects are required to strip away attributes of their identity that might impede protocols that cascade down from the executive. Total transparency becomes a condition of the re-creation of individual identity. Practices drawn from religious and spiritual traditions that enact the surrender of the self facilitate submission to the demands of the Performative Absolute, the immanent sublime, Demiurge or dieu caché articulated by HRM. The informed passivity of the employee precedes oblation, the sacrificial offering of the self that facilitates the donation by HRM of the attuned identity that ensures the organisational survival of the individual.

Boredom at work: The contribution of Ernst Jünger

“…Notwithstanding critiques of managerialism’s rise and extension into the personal, emotional, and spiritual aspects of life (c.f. Heelas, 2002; Roberts, 2012), it is only very recently that boredom has been considered in line with the conceptualisation offered by the field of Boredom Studies (Johnsen, 2016): that is, in its ‘profound’ conception. A key insight from what Johnsen identifies as the common affinities between Boredom Studies and MOS is that studies of boredom at work need not be limited to prescriptive and managerialist concerns, which (counter to its proponents’ claims) rarely address the experience of boredom itself (Johnsen, 2011: 482).…”

“….’ (Costea et al, 2005: 141). As others have pointed out, following the increased focus on elements such as ‘culture management’, ‘self-management’ and ‘Human Resource Management’ in the 1980s, a new mixture of play and work has appeared on the managerial horizon (Andersen, 2009, 2013; Roberts, 2012). It is in relation to these focuses that, in the early 21st Century, ‘self-assertion seems to have produced a new cultural order in which Dionysian modulations have come to replace the rational, productive, ascetic, self-sacrificial “Prometheus” of early capitalism’ (Costea et al, 2005: 146).…”

“…This therefore casts doubt about interpreting managerialism’s turn towards the ‘soft’ attributes of human subjectivity (cf. Heelas, 2002 ; Roberts, 2008, 2012; Thrift, 1997) as a purely ‘Narcissistic-Dionysian’ figure ‘entitled to endless fun’ (Costea et al, 2007: 164) in the arena and domain of ‘serious’ self-work (Costea et al, 2007: 163).…”

‘RE/TRS’ is a Girl’s Subject: Talking about Gender and the Discourse of ‘Religion’ in UK Educational Spaces

“…So research projects in education – the topic of this article – will be routinely required to conform to patterns of specific measurability that are determined by the kind of ‘smart’ protocols derived from the context of businesses where the primary aim is to measure financial loss and gain. This has clear benefits for enterprises ‘for profit’, but its totalizing effects in other contexts like education can be oppressive and highly limiting to the imagination and indeed to the human spirit (Roberts, 2012). Similarly, in policy terms, desirable scientific rigor in research seems often to be confused with programmes of standardized testing, assessing pre-determined outcomes, and otherwise enacting programmes of alignment along very well-beaten tracks.…”