ABSTRACT

CMS assumes that the practice of management can only be understood in the context of the wider socio-economic, political and cultural factors which shape – if not determine – those practices (Wong et al., 2009a, 2009b). Therefore, in this chapter, we shall take a historical perspective on how the neo-liberal agenda underpinning Anglo-American forms of global capitalism since the 1980s has led to the installation of a ‘new work culture’ of capitalism. By stepping back, we can consider how organizational practices that today have become the norm, were the result of a gradual implanting of a modus operandi which placed achieving competitive advantage within a free market to the benet of shareholders as the highest value.