Sturdy, Andrew, Schwarz, Mirela and Spicer, Andre. (2006) Guess who's coming to dinner? Structures and uses of liminality in strategic management consultancy. Human Relations, 59 (7). pp. 929-960. ISSN 0018-7267

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Abstract

Organizational studies have recently drawn our attention to the importance of liminality in our working lives. This transitional time-space is characteristic of precarious or mobile employment such as temporary, project and consulting work especially It is understood as a fluid and largely unstructured space where normal order is suspended and which is experienced as both unsettling and creative. This article critically explores liminality through a detailed study of the neglected activities of business dinners and back-stage management consultancy. We argue that liminality can in fact be a highly and multi-structured, comfortable and strategic or tactical space. We find that the use of wider norms and routines of eating and socializing as well as of hierarchical patterns of working and of exclusion and inclusion shape the experience and outcomes of liminality. Moreover, we highlight how the context of liminality is sustained by highly structured organizational activities in the production of domestic and public meals. We conclude that business meals mark a traditional, rather than modern, practice where 'official secrets' continue to grease the wheels of commerce. At the most senior levels especially, the liminality between work and private spheres can be far from unsettling and fluid.

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Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management H Social Sciences
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School
Journal or Publication Title:	Human Relations
Publisher:	Sage Publications Ltd.
ISSN:	0018-7267
Date:	July 2006
Volume:	59
Number:	7
Number of Pages:	32
Page Range:	pp. 929-960
Identification Number:	10.1177/0018726706067597
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access
URI:	http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/id/eprint/33220

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