The Essence of Marketing Managerial Work

Starting with a trickle in Scandinavia,stimulated
into a torrent by the folklore vs.
fact controversy of Mintzberg origin, the
stream of investigations into the nature of
managerial work , has spanned five
decades, and turned back into a trickle. Despite
this endeavour little progress has been made
in answering Hales repeated question why do
managers do what they do? . We believe this study,
and its developed conceptualisations, provide a
powerful and novel response to this question. We
contend that the essence of managerial work is the
process of shaping and sustaining commitments. This
model, based on a metaphorical temporal rope,
elaborates the various interweaving strands and
threads of what is argued to be the quintessence of
managerial behaviour. The inherently political, weak-
situation/wicked-problem character of marketing
management is also illuminated. The marketing
management discourse is found not to speak to the
milieu, or to the substance of the subject managers
marketing management. This substance is found to
rest in their pursuit of innovative reconciliations
for the complex of contradictions that confronts them

Autorentext
Dr Peter Lenney, B.Sc. Ph.D.- Lecturer:Lancaster University Management School. Before becoming an academic Peter's 20-year business career comprised various marketing roles, and he became Worldwide Business Director of International Paint Marine Coatings; a global supplier of coating systems & services - at that time a $500m business.

Klappentext
Starting with a trickle in Scandinavia,stimulated into a torrent by the 'folklore vs. fact' controversy of Mintzberg origin, the stream of investigations into 'the nature of managerial work', has spanned five decades, and turned back into a trickle. Despite this endeavour little progress has been made in 'answering' Hales' repeated question 'why do managers do what they do?'. We believe this study, and its developed conceptualisations, provide a powerful and novel response to this question. We contend that the essence of managerial work is the process of shaping and sustaining commitments. This model, based on a metaphorical temporal rope, elaborates the various interweaving strands and threads of what is argued to be the quintessence of managerial behaviour. The inherently political, weak- situation/wicked-problem character of marketing management is also illuminated. The marketing management discourse is found not to speak to the milieu, or to the substance of the subject managers marketing management. This 'substance' is found to rest in their pursuit of innovative reconciliations for the complex of contradictions that confronts them