Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-nwzlb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-29T07:41:15.967Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

2 - Exploring corporate life: A realist view on management restructuring

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 February 2010

John Hassard
Affiliation:
University of Manchester
Leo McCann
Affiliation:
University of Manchester
Jonathan Morris
Affiliation:
Cardiff University
Get access

Summary

[O]ne of the great tasks of social studies today [is] to describe the larger economic and political situation in terms of its meaning for the inner life and the external career of the individual.

(C. Wright Mills, 1953: xx)

Gaining access to large organisations to conduct research inquiries can be extremely difficult. When the topics of inquiry include such sensitive issues as job cuts, stress and employee dignity, the task can be made considerably tougher. Adding an international element to the mix complicates matters yet further, especially when one of the nations to be studied is Japan, a country renowned for complex trusted relationships, and where requests for information from outsiders are met with silence, or guarded responses shrouded in corporate tatemae. These concerns were prominent in our minds as we embarked in 2003 on what was to become a five-year research project. This chapter begins by describing the processes we went through in gaining access to the giant firms that feature in the book. It then goes on to cover the methodology and theory that underpin our study.

Access to the firms across the countries did at times prove difficult, but in general it was far from insurmountable. Many companies in the UK and the USA declined to give assistance. In Japan, our access was dependent almost entirely on what our intermediaries could arrange for us.

Type
Chapter
Information
Managing in the Modern Corporation
The Intensification of Managerial Work in the USA, UK and Japan
, pp. 39 - 54
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×