Abstract
This chapter examines the self in the context of management activities. Drawing upon Mead’s (1934) framing of the social self in process terms, we engage self-management in the context of the generalized other. Symbolic interactionists have long recognized the multifaceted aspects of the self—as the reflected, looking glass self (Cooley 1902) and the self as developed and contextualized in relation to others (Blumer 1969; Mead 1934). Embracing this long tradition of inquiry, in this chapter we attend to the related themes of the self as a target of management activities in an organizational context and the self as an object of one’s own management activities. By attending to ‘doing nothing’ as an aspect of deliberative action and self-management, this chapter contributes to an examination of inaction as social action. We pay particular attention to office holder perspectives and the circumstances where opting for inaction may be defined as a preferable or otherwise strategic course of action. Additionally, we examine self-management in the context of joint action and office holder attentiveness to the relational dynamics as a central aspect of self-management. Lastly, this chapter discusses being managed by addressing themes such as experiencing management as disruption and emotionality in the context of management related activities.
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Notes
- 1.
See Irvine (1999) for an extended examination of the social processes that accompany participation in support groups .
- 2.
- 3.
For an examination of self-management in more anonymous, urban settings see Lofland’s (1972) work on self-management as a tactical endeavor.
- 4.
See Chap. 3 for a more in-depth discussion of symbolic interactionism.
- 5.
For an additional discussion of these themes readers are directed to Chap. 7.
- 6.
See Herman and Miall’s (1990) discussion of the positive consequences of stigma relative to the experiences of mental illness and voluntary childlessness for a helpful consideration of this particular theme.
- 7.
There are some important parallels here with research within deviant subcultures. For example, Athens’ (2015b) discussion of the process of violentization attends to the strategic place that being perceived as a person capable of violence holds for potential violent encounters.
- 8.
The concept of master status was developed by Hughes (1945) and was used to frame how a quality of the person could become the prism through which all other aspects of the self were seen. For example the ascribed status of race (e.g., blackness) could define and modify achieved statuses (e.g., offices held). For a careful consideration of the development of the concept of master status over time see van den Scott and van den Hoonard (2016).
- 9.
For example, the self-management of the alcoholic self may rather centrally enlist the support and participation of others (Denzin 1993).
- 10.
While the notions of because and in-order-to motives are found in the Heideggerian and pragmatist traditions, our usage here is indebted to Alfred Schütz, notably his (1967) The Phenomenology of the Social World and Schütz and Luckmann’s (1973) summative volume The Structures of the Life-World.
- 11.
The concept of taken-for-granted has its roots in the phenomenological sociology of Schütz (1967). Referring to the complex set of intersubjectively established shared meanings that people may develop in the context of given ‘life worlds,’ these beliefs held in common are central to the social construction of everyday life. The emphasis here is on everyday knowledge as opposed to other forms of knowing such as expert knowledge.
- 12.
- 13.
This theme is well established in the extended literature that examines the learning of emotions in occupational and organizational settings. For example, see Haas’ (1977) discussion of learning emotions among high steel ironworkers, Scott and Myers’ (2005) examination of emotions and firefighters, and Barley’s (1983) discussion of the semiotic renderings of emotions in the context of funeral work.
- 14.
For example see, Schweingruber and Berns’ (2005) discussion of emotion management among door-to-door sales workers.
- 15.
- 16.
Particularly salient here are aspects of the socially constructed world that may be experienced in more objectified terms such as the worlds of language, science, art, social organizations and notions of shared histories (Berger and Luckmann 1967).
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Grills, S., Prus, R. (2019). Being Managed and Managing Self: Processes and Problematics of Self-regulation. In: Management Motifs. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93429-7_8
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