ABSTRACT

The adoption of characteristic discourses of self-development such as the managerial, or for that matter, the professional academic career appear to offer a ready-to-hand set of narrative resources that provide possibilities for a degree of autonomy without totally isolating oneself from the main currents of modern society. Existentialist theory may provide some clues as to why managers seize upon and are, in turn, seized by these characteristic discourses. Managerial work has also required constant job and house moves to sustain career momentum. To return to the stories as stories, more specific conclusions can be suggested regarding the nature of managerial identity. One can trace the effects of influential and pervasive social discourses such as those of the career or the heroic inspirational leader that encourage the epic mode of managerial self-definition and suggest that a managerial identity provides an accessible route to the self-developmental quest typical of late modernity.