The Essence of Marketing Managerial Work : An Empirical Study of Managing in Marketing

Lenney, Peter (2009) The Essence of Marketing Managerial Work : An Empirical Study of Managing in Marketing. VDM Verlag Dr. Müller. ISBN 9783639121124

Abstract

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.