Can Culture be Managed? Working with “Raw” Material: The Case of the English Slaughtermen

Abstract

This article questions whether a core objective of HRM – to manage organisational culture – is feasible, other than at a most superficial level. On the basis of an in‐depth case study analysis the authors argue that the dominant values of society at large are implicated in what appears to be the spontaneous formation and character of occupational cultures. The article raises the question of whether spontaneously occurring “cultures of excellence” are gratuitously hijacked by self‐serving managerial groups, happy to co‐opt the sub‐culture of work groups when it works to their advantage.