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
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