- Title
- Getting in and finding out: accessing and interviewing elites in business and work contexts
- Creator
- Ryan, Shaun; Lewer, John
- Relation
- Researching Amongst Elites: Challenges and Opportunities in Studying Up p. 71-88
- Publisher
- Ashgate
- Resource Type
- book chapter
- Date
- 2012
- Description
- It has been argued that the term “elite” “is so protean and porous that it is almost devoid of meaning” and that its use might best be as a heuristic device (Shore 2002: 3–4). Our interpretation of “elites” in a business context is not defined narrowly (Alvesson and Deetz 2000); rather, we envisage it as encompassing business owners, executives and senior management, key officials from industry/business associations and lobby groups—the “managerial class.” Following Welch et al we could also add someone with “considerable industry experience and frequently also long tenure with the company; [and] possesses a broad network of personal relationships” (2002: 613). Many managers, especially those at the functional rather than the strategic level, straddle the often-confused conceptual and methodological divide between “elite” and “expert” (Littig 2009). Unlike other studies, we include senior trade union officials into our interpretation reflecting the interrelated interests and historic closeness of the relationship between unions and business and the rise of “bureaucratic corporate unionism” with its centralization of power, administrative and executive focus (Moody 2007: 196). Of course many in the labor movement maintain traditions of open engagement in public debate, however, and based on our experience and in discussion with colleagues, the rise of managerialism in unions and the associated further centralization of control by labour elites can be a significant barrier to getting good access to unions.
- Subject
- elites; business; employment; managers
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/1336562
- Identifier
- uon:27646
- Identifier
- ISBN:9781409429562
- Language
- eng
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