Practice management and control of the workers' subjectivity: the ideology of enchantment in a retail company

Abstract

This paper presents a case study of a retail company and approaches the relationship between organizational
management practices and the control of workers’ subjectivity. The research is qualitative and is based in
observations, interviews, video records and analysis of documents. The collected data were analyzed following
Bardin’s proposal for qualitative content analysis. The theoretical discussion is grounded on the contributions from
authors of Psychosociology and Political Economy of Power. Within the researched company, the practices that
subjectively involve the worker with the organization are: (i) process of immersion for achieving integration between
workers; (ii) rituals for inaugurating new branch offices, with anthems composed by the workers themselves; (iii)
internalization of norms and rules of conduct through the participation of workers in the creation of policies of
enchantment and through the systematic repetition of organizational objectives and values; and (iv) production of
books with stories of success, shaping the subjectivity by evidencing an ideal behavior. The main result of this essay
is to highlight the effectiveness of practices for controlling the subjectivity that reinforce both the involvement and
the seductive and perverse engagement of workers with the organization, and their adherence through an ideology
of enchantment which resembles a “religious” instance.