Pop-management: tales of passion, power and profit

Abstract

This paper analyzes the phenomenon of popular management literature, proposing a reflection about its role in the managers’ subjectivity. Pop-management literature comprises books and magazines produced by the business media for fast consumption. Adopting the psychoanalytical approach to fairy tales as a perspective, we conducted a content analysis of two success stories published in the business media. We observed that the structure and key elements of fairy tales are present in these stories. We argue that the success stories help to reduce tensions and mitigate frustrations, supposedly offering answers for anxieties and professional problems. We also argue that continued access to these texts might keep individuals linked to their power fantasies and therefore might affect their development and maturing processes.

Citation

de Paula, A.P.P. and Wood Jr., T. (2009), "Pop-management: tales of passion, power and profit", International Journal of Organization Theory & Behavior, Vol. 12 No. 4, pp. 595-617. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOTB-12-04-2009-B003