Control the construction of your legend or someone else will - An analysisof texts on Jack Welch

lack Welch, the CEO of General Electric, has been upheld by many as the inc arnation of a corporate chieftain. Countless publications praise his astoni shing achievements. The authors demonstrate that these texts are modern leg ends, that they adopt similar forms and serve similar functions as medieval legends, and that they also incorporate patterns Of the frontier legend. T hey also point out that a critical text on Welch can be compared with count er legends that were launched during the Reformation to fight the impact th at traditional legends had on people's faith. They then try to explain why managers read texts that praise the uniqueness of a manager like Welch and yet do not contain precise and detailed recipes for effective management. F inally, the authors discuss whether the shareholder value of a company can be increased by an effective communication policy as it is practiced by Wel ch.