Demystifying Business Celebrity

ISBN-13: 9780415327824 / Angielski / Miękka / 2009 / 180 str.

Eric Guthey;Timothy Clark;Brad Jackson

Opis

Business celebrities such as Bill Gates, Richard Branson and Rupert Murdoch are among the most widely recognised, admired and sometimes even vilified individuals in the world. Like their celebrity peers from the entertainment, sports, arts and political worlds, business celebrities exert an influence that is pervasive, but difficult to assess, evaluate and explain. Business celebrities have been around for as long as big business itself, but this is the first book to provide a systematic exploration of how they are constructed and why they exist. Business celebrities include entrepreneurs, CEOs, and management gurus. The book argues that these individuals are not self-made, but rather are created by a process of widespread media exposure to the point that their actions, personalities and even private lives function symbolically to represent significant dynamics and tensions prevalent in the contemporary business environment. Demystifying Business Celebrity raises questions about the impact and significance of the production of celebrity upon our understanding of, and our ability to promote the practice of leadership in an enlightened manner. The book will prove a useful addition to the enlightened business student's bookshelf and will be informative reading for all those with an interest in business and management.

Management gurus have been identified as the progenitors of many recent fashionable management ideas. Central to the existing literature is management gurus' portrayal as extraordinary individuals with extraordinary ideas and powers of self-promotion. In other words, management gurus themselves are credited as being wholly responsible for the creation and dissemination of the ideas for which they are known.

This book shows that this characterization of management gurus does not stand up to empirical scrutiny. The authors’ research on the activities of management gurus shows that they collaborate with a range of professional groups during the course of developing (including editors and publishers, ghost writers, agents, consultants, academics, and managers), revising and disseminating their ideas.

Based on the primary research of management gurus, book editors and publishers, this book adopts a novel conceptual/theoretical perspective and brings together insights from management, sociological and cultural studies literature.

Spis treści

1. Introduction: Why Demystifying Business Celebrities Matters  2. Business Celebrities and the Celebrity Business  3. Management Gurus as Management Fashion Celebrities  4. The Many Faces of Business Celebrity  5. Open Season: The Celebrity CEO Backlash  6. The Celebrification of Heroic Leadership  7. The Production of Business Celebrities and the Production of Leadership