Global Journal of Human Social Science, C: Sociology and Culture, Volume 23 Issue 2

careful management as a necessary survival mechanism. Strategic and risk management thus become the epitome of rational conduct and the bearers of humankind’s best hopes of handling potential surprises and harms. The management of risks therefore displaced industry, invention and exploration, on which depended the promise of progress towards a better world in first modernity. Particularly pertinent are the risks posed by ‘today’s fast changing world’, a recurring trope of managerial discourse. It is a world in which technologies, products, opportunities and consumer tastes succeed each other at an accelerating pace. Careful management is seen as vital in order to increase performance and efficiency in such conditions, and is therefore the primary means of success. The managerial responsibility for implementing a constant and seemingly chaotic process of reorganisation thereby becomes the lifeblood of organisations. However, short term investment policies, constant product redesigns and frequent organisational restructuring all contribute to the creation of fleeting business environments, while presented as inevitable in order to cope with them. Working in flexible and temporary projects encourages constant change while securing the position of management at their core. At the same time, the employment of everyone else is rendered less secure and more dependent on management. Instead of merely facilitating the industrial peace negotiated between the parties to the production process, managerial decisions become the most crucial element of success, on which owners and shareholders depend no less than workers. Furthermore, the emphasis on cultural diversity and plurality of lifestyles and identities promotes management’s value neutrality ethics and self projection as the instrument for everyone’s satisfaction. The dissolution of hierarchies and devolution of control helps construe work as an arena of self fulfilment, personal development, intimacy and even fun. The work environment constructed by management is just anextension of the carnivalesque cultural arena of postmodernity. Yet the blurring of distinctions between social and professional life, work and leisure, formality and fun only intensifies organisational demands on the personal and affective resources of employees. The time, effort and stress of maintaining careers increases dramatically. At the same time, the new modes of self monitoring and governance free up senior executives to use corporate resources to enjoy a global and mobile lifestyle. The typical social processes of second modernity are therefore significantly driven by management and reflect managerialist ideology. Its prominent features all help to fortify the social and ethical standing of management, justifying its centrality to the success of organisations and society at large. There are, of course, other important aspects of second modernity – consumerism, globalisation and the knowledge economy to name but a few. Further study is required to reveal the links between managerial social dominance and its supporting ideology and these important aspects of contemporary society. B ibliography 1. Alvesson, M., & Willmott, H. (2002). Identity regulation as organizational control: Producing the appropriate individual. Journal of management studies , 39 (5), 619-644. 2. Barker, J. R. (1993). Tightening the iron cage: Concertive control in self-managing teams. Administrative science quarterly, 408-437. 3. Baudrillard, J. (1994). Simulacra and simulation . Ann Arbor: University of Michiganpress. 4. Bauman, Z. (2001). The individualized society . Cambridge: Polity. 5. Bauman, Z. (2000). 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