Managers, healthism and heroes

Managers engaging in competitive long-distance running aspire to personal fulfilment and develop 'heroic' leader identities.

This is among the findings of Dr François-Régis Puyou and fellow researchers in their 2021 article published in Organization.

The research team drew on Foucault’s concept 'governmentality' as well as the idea of 'healthism' in analysing their interviews with middle-aged senior managers. The study contributes to the literature on governmentality by showing how in neoliberalism healthism constructs managers as enterprising selves.

Read Citius, Altius, Fortius: Managers' quest for heroic leader identities.

Photo by Quino Al on unsplash.