BELL (2008) – INTRODUCTION
Purpose and motivation of the book
Bell examines how management and organization are represented in film, arguing that film
is an important cultural medium through which people form impressions about the world of
work.
Film influences:
- How individuals construct their self-identity
- How they interpret social interactions
- How they make sense of organizational experiences
Because people often use films to express who they are of what they value, film holds a
significant place in shaping personal meaning and broader cultural understanding. For Bell,
this makes it a legitimate and valuable source for studying management.
o Shapes how people understand themselves and others
o Reflects the cultural beliefs and values of a society
o Offers insights into emotional and social experiences at work
o Makes abstract management ideas concrete and relatable
Thus, film serves as both an analytical object (what does it say about organizations?) and a
cultural force influencing how people interpret work and organizational life
Film as emotional and intellectual representation
Film captures organizational life in ways that textbooks often fail to do:
- It shows the emotional side of management; conflict, power, desire, frustration, fear
- It represents socially embedded issues; gender, inequality and identity
- It offers accessible narratives that mirror everyday organizational experiences
Traditional management writing focuses on rational analysis and abstract concepts. Films, by
contrast, offer relatable stories that reveal the complexity and ambiguity of real
organizational life
Film as popular culture
Bell situates film within mass popular culture, this type of culture reflects and shapes the
cultural practices of society.
Sciences say that:
- Popular culture communicates the ideals and norms of groups
- Films “teach” ways of interpreting work and behavior (not explicitly)
- And film contributes to building metaphors that guide identity formation
Thus, film is not only entertainment, it is a cultural mechanism through which people learn
what work means and how organizations function
o Expresses societal values and practices
o Generates shared meanings through stories and symbols
o Provides ‘transformational metaphors’ for interpreting identity and organizational
experience
,Why study film in management?
1. Film studies as an academic field
Since the 1960s, film studies have become well-established, offering conceptual frameworks
(theories for analyzing films), such as narrative theory, representation theory, ideology
critique and audience studies. Those tools can be applied to management research, help us
study management and organizations.
Film studies give us the vocabulary and methods to explore what movies say about work
and organizations
2. Films as global communication (globalized medium)
Despite being rooted mainly in Western traditions, film travels internationally and spreads
cultural ideas about:
- Capitalism
- Organizational behavior
- Values attached to work
This makes film a powerful lens for understanding management on a global scale
3. Film’s accessibility (provides a means of communication)
Film communicates through narrative, character and emotion. Unlike dense academic
writing, it reaches broad audience and helps bridge the gap between theoretical concepts
and lived experience
4. Film provides means of exploring theories
Film can be used to test and explore theories about management and organizations. Many
of these theories are qualitative, similar to methods such as ethnography or participation
observation. These approaches focus on the lived experiences of people inside organizations
Film, like qualitative research, offers a detailed account of organizational life based on the
behavior and interactions of social actors
5. Film as historical evidence
Film allows researchers to explore the past because it preserves archival images of earlier
times, showing how work and organizations looked and felt in different eras
Because films reflect the collective memories and cultural assumptions of their time, they
help us understand:
- How certain managerial ideas became dominant
- How organizations were socially constructed in earlier periods
- How representations of management have changed
Films record:
o Changing attitudes toward work
o Evolving (evoluerende) organizational practices
o Shifting economic conditions
o Transformations in managerial ideology
For instance:
- The Navigators shows how privatization reshapes labor relations
- Office Space reveals the frustrations of corporate life in the late 1990s
, 6. Film as a tool for critical analysis
Film also enables the research of power relations and social dynamics within organizations
- Critical management theory explores how management is accomplished and how
power operates, in contrast to mainstream management, which focuses on
improving managerial effectiveness
- Film frequently represents management not as neutral or natural, but as something
that can be questioned and challenged
- It often deals with themes like: power, control and inequality
Films give voice to the experiences of people with less power in organizations, contrasting
sharply with official managerial discourse (= officiële, dominante manier waarop organisaties
praten over management; bedoeld om positief beeld te creëren).
Through humor, parody, exaggeration or dramatic storytelling, film can reveal what is left out
or glossed over in traditional management narratives!
Defining film as popular
Popular culture is not just about what people like, it is shaped by a continuous power
struggle between dominant and subordinate cultural forces. Dominant groups constantly
attempt to control and reorganize culture, while resistance also takes place. This struggle
means that culture is always shifting, with no fixed or permanent victories.
Popularity is produced through processes of classification, labeling and social/historical
context. What is considered elite or niche at one moment may later become part of
mainstream popular culture, and vice versa. Popularity is created, not simply discovered.
Hall emphasizes that we must understand the historical processes; inclusion (gets brought
into mainstream), exclusion (what gets ignored), distortion (how meanings get changed),
negotiation (different groups argue over meaning) and redefinition (how categories get
changed over time). And what counts as popular is constantly being redefined.
Narrative fiction and the linguistic turn
Bell links film to broader developments in social science:
- The linguistic turn emphasized that language and narrative shape human
understanding (we understand the world through language and the stories we use,
not just through objective facts)
- Scholars say that fiction (novels, plays, stories and films) offers valuable insights into
how people experience organization
- Postmodern perspectives (beliefs reality is constructed through language and there
are many possible viewpoints) call for methods that blur boundaries between fact
and fiction even fictional ones can reveal important truths about organizations
Bell suggests that using narrative forms like film can:
- Illuminate (belicht) aspects of organizational life that rational analysis overlooks
- Encourage creativity and reflexivity
- Help students and researchers confront the ambiguity of organizational reality
Purpose and motivation of the book
Bell examines how management and organization are represented in film, arguing that film
is an important cultural medium through which people form impressions about the world of
work.
Film influences:
- How individuals construct their self-identity
- How they interpret social interactions
- How they make sense of organizational experiences
Because people often use films to express who they are of what they value, film holds a
significant place in shaping personal meaning and broader cultural understanding. For Bell,
this makes it a legitimate and valuable source for studying management.
o Shapes how people understand themselves and others
o Reflects the cultural beliefs and values of a society
o Offers insights into emotional and social experiences at work
o Makes abstract management ideas concrete and relatable
Thus, film serves as both an analytical object (what does it say about organizations?) and a
cultural force influencing how people interpret work and organizational life
Film as emotional and intellectual representation
Film captures organizational life in ways that textbooks often fail to do:
- It shows the emotional side of management; conflict, power, desire, frustration, fear
- It represents socially embedded issues; gender, inequality and identity
- It offers accessible narratives that mirror everyday organizational experiences
Traditional management writing focuses on rational analysis and abstract concepts. Films, by
contrast, offer relatable stories that reveal the complexity and ambiguity of real
organizational life
Film as popular culture
Bell situates film within mass popular culture, this type of culture reflects and shapes the
cultural practices of society.
Sciences say that:
- Popular culture communicates the ideals and norms of groups
- Films “teach” ways of interpreting work and behavior (not explicitly)
- And film contributes to building metaphors that guide identity formation
Thus, film is not only entertainment, it is a cultural mechanism through which people learn
what work means and how organizations function
o Expresses societal values and practices
o Generates shared meanings through stories and symbols
o Provides ‘transformational metaphors’ for interpreting identity and organizational
experience
,Why study film in management?
1. Film studies as an academic field
Since the 1960s, film studies have become well-established, offering conceptual frameworks
(theories for analyzing films), such as narrative theory, representation theory, ideology
critique and audience studies. Those tools can be applied to management research, help us
study management and organizations.
Film studies give us the vocabulary and methods to explore what movies say about work
and organizations
2. Films as global communication (globalized medium)
Despite being rooted mainly in Western traditions, film travels internationally and spreads
cultural ideas about:
- Capitalism
- Organizational behavior
- Values attached to work
This makes film a powerful lens for understanding management on a global scale
3. Film’s accessibility (provides a means of communication)
Film communicates through narrative, character and emotion. Unlike dense academic
writing, it reaches broad audience and helps bridge the gap between theoretical concepts
and lived experience
4. Film provides means of exploring theories
Film can be used to test and explore theories about management and organizations. Many
of these theories are qualitative, similar to methods such as ethnography or participation
observation. These approaches focus on the lived experiences of people inside organizations
Film, like qualitative research, offers a detailed account of organizational life based on the
behavior and interactions of social actors
5. Film as historical evidence
Film allows researchers to explore the past because it preserves archival images of earlier
times, showing how work and organizations looked and felt in different eras
Because films reflect the collective memories and cultural assumptions of their time, they
help us understand:
- How certain managerial ideas became dominant
- How organizations were socially constructed in earlier periods
- How representations of management have changed
Films record:
o Changing attitudes toward work
o Evolving (evoluerende) organizational practices
o Shifting economic conditions
o Transformations in managerial ideology
For instance:
- The Navigators shows how privatization reshapes labor relations
- Office Space reveals the frustrations of corporate life in the late 1990s
, 6. Film as a tool for critical analysis
Film also enables the research of power relations and social dynamics within organizations
- Critical management theory explores how management is accomplished and how
power operates, in contrast to mainstream management, which focuses on
improving managerial effectiveness
- Film frequently represents management not as neutral or natural, but as something
that can be questioned and challenged
- It often deals with themes like: power, control and inequality
Films give voice to the experiences of people with less power in organizations, contrasting
sharply with official managerial discourse (= officiële, dominante manier waarop organisaties
praten over management; bedoeld om positief beeld te creëren).
Through humor, parody, exaggeration or dramatic storytelling, film can reveal what is left out
or glossed over in traditional management narratives!
Defining film as popular
Popular culture is not just about what people like, it is shaped by a continuous power
struggle between dominant and subordinate cultural forces. Dominant groups constantly
attempt to control and reorganize culture, while resistance also takes place. This struggle
means that culture is always shifting, with no fixed or permanent victories.
Popularity is produced through processes of classification, labeling and social/historical
context. What is considered elite or niche at one moment may later become part of
mainstream popular culture, and vice versa. Popularity is created, not simply discovered.
Hall emphasizes that we must understand the historical processes; inclusion (gets brought
into mainstream), exclusion (what gets ignored), distortion (how meanings get changed),
negotiation (different groups argue over meaning) and redefinition (how categories get
changed over time). And what counts as popular is constantly being redefined.
Narrative fiction and the linguistic turn
Bell links film to broader developments in social science:
- The linguistic turn emphasized that language and narrative shape human
understanding (we understand the world through language and the stories we use,
not just through objective facts)
- Scholars say that fiction (novels, plays, stories and films) offers valuable insights into
how people experience organization
- Postmodern perspectives (beliefs reality is constructed through language and there
are many possible viewpoints) call for methods that blur boundaries between fact
and fiction even fictional ones can reveal important truths about organizations
Bell suggests that using narrative forms like film can:
- Illuminate (belicht) aspects of organizational life that rational analysis overlooks
- Encourage creativity and reflexivity
- Help students and researchers confront the ambiguity of organizational reality
