Challenging the Conventional Wisdom on ‘Enterprise’: Control and Autonomy in a Direct Selling Organisation

Claudia Groß; Nicole Jung

doi:10.5771/0935-9915-2009-4-348

Contents
- Chapter Expand | CollapseAuthorsPage
- 315–319 Titelei/Inhaltsverzeichnis 315–319
- 320–325 Editorial: Power in Organizations – Power of Organizations Axel Haunschild, Werner Nienhueser, Richard Weiskopf Axel Haunschild, Werner Nienhueser, Richard Weiskopf 320–325
- 326–347 Bureaucracy, the Holocaust and Techniques of Power at Work Stewart Clegg Stewart Clegg 326–347
- 348–372 Challenging the Conventional Wisdom on ‘Enterprise’: Control and Autonomy in a Direct Selling Organisation Claudia Groß, Nicole Jung Claudia Groß, Nicole Jung 348–372
- 373–391 Micro-political Games in the Multinational Corporation: The Case of Mandate Change Christoph Dörrenbächer, Mike Geppert Christoph Dörrenbächer, Mike Geppert 373–391
- 392–412 Personnel Departmental Power: Realities from the UK Higher Education Sector Elaine Farndale, Veronica Hope-Hailey Elaine Farndale, Veronica Hope-Hailey 392–412
- 413–431 A Multi-dimensional Analysis of Managers’ Power – Functional, Socio-political, Interpretive-discursive, and Socio-cultural Approaches Thomas Diefenbach, Rune Todnem By, Patricia Klarner Thomas Diefenbach, Rune Todnem By, Patricia Klarner 413–431
- 432–433 Book Review 432–433
- 434–436 Contents of mrev, volume 20, issues 1-4 434–436
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mrev management revue , page 348 - 372

Challenging the Conventional Wisdom on ‘Enterprise’: Control and Autonomy in a Direct Selling Organisation

Autoren

Claudia Groß Nicole Jung

DOI
- doi.org/10.5771/0935-9915-2009-4-348
- ISSN: 0935-9915
- ISSN online: 1861-9908
Abstract

Entrepreneurialism within organisations has been praised for serving employees and employers alike, but it has also been criticised as exercising power over employees in an unobtrusive, yet effective way. Within the literature from both advocates and critics, two dichotomies prevail. First, ‘enterprise’ is considered as a monolithic concept that is either ‘liberating’ or governing employees; second, it tends to be viewed as strongly opposed to ‘bureaucracy’. Recent studies have started to challenge these hitherto often one-sided characterisations by showing that individuals react and respond differently to entrepreneurialism and that bureaucratic elements can co-exist within entrepreneurial companies. However, by drawing on empirical evidence from an entrepreneurial company, we demonstrate that enterprise within an organisation itself is a complex and paradoxical instrument of power and governance in organisations. We suppose that enterprise cannot stand on its own but is instead based upon organisational practices that are at the same time liberating and controlling, entrepreneurial and bureaucratic. Such a view not only allows one to pay attention to the fractions that are caused when the ideal of the individual self-made man is transferred to organisations, but also to question the enterprise discourse itself.
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