Strength Is Ignorance; Slavery Is Freedom: Managing Culture in Modern Organizations*

The article subjects the assumptions and prescriptions of the 'Corporate Culture' literature to critical scrutiny . The body of the article is devoted to teasing out the distinctive basis of its appeal compared with earlier management theory . It is seen to build upon earlier efforts (e .g . 'theory Y') to constitute a self-disciplining form of employee subjectivity by asserting that 'practical autonomy' is conditional upon the development of a strong corporate culture . The paper illuminates the dark side of this project by drawing attention to the subjugating and totalitarian implications of its excellence/ quality prescriptions . To this end, parallels are drawn with the philosophy ofcontrol favoured by the Party in Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four. Specifically, the paper critiques the 'doublethink' contention that autonomy can be realized in monocultural conditions that systematically constrain opportunities to wrestle with competing values standpoints and their associated life projects .