CONFLICTING VALUES - TEAM MANAGEMENT PORTRAYED IN EPIC METAPHORS

This article analyzes a CEO's use of extended epic metaphor in buildin g corporate culture. Whereas much of the research on management's use of narrative has examined shorter stories and anecdotes, here the auth ors analyze the text of a speech written by a newly hired CEO for his upper management team. The speech, which was never delivered but was i nstead sent out in a leadership manual to managers in the conglomerate , begins with a narrative history of the CEO's first five months in of fice. In his description of events, the metaphoric language suggesting heroes and competition contradicts the principles of team management that the CEO intends to implement throughout the company. These heroic metaphors valorize individual achievement, agency, and action-values more likely to be familiar to the business culture than the cooperativ e values of terms. Drawn from war and sports metaphors common in the l anguage of the popular American lexicon, the images generate mon excit ement and appeal than those of cooperative planning inherent in team m anagement systems.