Research exploring corporate culture management has identified cynicism as a significant way some workers resist attempts to control their identities. The metaphors of defense and distancing are popular ways of explaining this cynicism. The article argues that these metaphors posit an already-present self as the object of protection. Drawing on empirical research of a communications firm, it is suggested cynicism might also be understood as the ongoing production of subjectivity rather than its defense or distancing from cultural controls.
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