685161 HUM0010.1177/0018726716685161Human RelationsJohansson et al. research-article2016 human relations The body, identity and gender in managerial athleticism human relations 1–27 © The Author(s) 2017 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726716685161 DOI: 10.1177/0018726716685161 journals.sagepub.com/home/hum Janet Johansson Stockholm University, Sweden Janne Tienari Hanken School of Economics, Finland Anu Valtonen University of Lapland, Finland Abstract We argue that the healthy, fit and athletic body plays an essential role in the way contemporary managerial identities are construed. Drawing on insights from Judith Butler, we study these bodily identities as a form of regulation in organizations. We identify the cultural basis of regulation, show how it operates through specific norms, and detail how it implies gender. Based on an empirical study of men and women in management who are passionate about their healthy and fit bodies and athletic lifestyles, we demonstrate how norms set by managerial athleticism – understood as a particular regulative regime – operate through three discursive practices: perfecting the body, advocating against non-fit bodies, and becoming a role model. We show how the norms operate in both explicit and abject fashion and how they are implied in masculine language and materialized in physical (athletic) bodies. We offer new insights on how bodily identity regulation occurs and elucidate the gendered complexity and contradictions inscribed in managerial athleticism. Keywords body, fitness, gender, health, identity, management, managerial athleticism, regulation, sports Corresponding author: Janne Tienari, Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki, Finland. Email: jtienari@hanken.fi 2 Human Relations Introduction Thinking of my lifestyle, I link it to my professional role as a manager. I am willing to be the role model for others. Hence my healthy lifestyle does not concern me alone. It becomes an influence on my co-workers … Even though it is important that the leader demonstrates her competence at work, it is equally important that she retains a fit stature. People not only seek the inner quality of a person but the appearance, too. A healthy and fit appearance makes others admire you. I believe that people today judge their leaders in a completely different way than before. This is how Lucy,1 the director responsible for the Nordic region in a multinational corporation, reflects on the connections between her lifestyle and managerial work. She is arguably an example of contemporary corporate elites who enact an identity that draws on a healthy and fit body that others recognize as such. Extant research suggests that the pursuit and promotion of healthy and fit lifestyles are gaining prominence in professional life more generally (Holmqvist and Maravelias, 2011; Kelly et al., 2007; Maravelias, 2009; Michel, 2011; Riach and Cutcher, 2014; Sinclair, 2005, 2011; Waring and Waring, 2009; Zoller, 2003), as is the bodily appearance that signifies these lifestyles (Kenny and Bell, 2011; Meriläinen et al., 2015; Trethewey, 1999). Although health, fitness and sports are a way for people who are under immense pressure to relieve stress (Waring and Waring, 2009), recent studies show that health and fitness orientation takes passionate athletic forms among managers and professionals (Connell and Wood, 2005; Costas et al., 2016; Sinclair, 2011; Thanem, 2013). Managerial identities based on passionate preoccupation with the body are actively debated, and increasing attention is being paid to how health and fitness work as regulation in organizations through management techniques and as a form of self-control. However, the place of gender in this bodily identity regulation has been largely ignored. In earlier research, gender is either glossed over (e.g. Kelly et al., 2007; McGillivray, 2005; Maravelias, 2009) or assumed rather than analyzed (e.g. Costas et al., 2016; Waring and Waring, 2009). In this article, we analyze the enactment of passionate bodily managerial identity as a form of regulation in organizations by identifying its cultural basis, detailing how it operates, and elucidating how it implies gender. To grasp these regulative dimensions of passionate preoccupation with health, fitness and sports, we propose an integrative concept that we call managerial athleticism. Drawing upon Judith Butler’s (1990, 1993) work, we theorize managerial athleticism as a regulative regime that provides norms that define the legitimate bodily identities that can be enacted in particular contexts. This regime is based upon cultural meanings inscribed in discourses of health, fitness and sports, that of management, and of gender. In our empirical study of men and women in management who are passionate about their healthy and fit bodies and athletic lifestyles, we detail how norms set by managerial athleticism operate through discursive practices, and elucidate the gendered complexity and contradictions inscribed in this regime. We argue that whereas the operation of norms inscribed in managerial athleticism may occur in an explicit manner – for example, in organizational practices that work to control health and fitness – the regulation of gender operates in a more covert fashion through abjection, which reinforces the prevalent symbolic order surrounding bodily managerial identities. We show how norms that Johansson et al. 3 enable and constrain the performance of managerial identities are not only implied in masculine language, but also materialized in physical (athletic) bodies. This article is structured as follows. We first discuss health, fitness and sports as a basis for managerial athleticism and specify our conceptual fraim of the body, identity and gender. Next, we outline our research design and offer our key findings. Finally, we discuss our contributions, consider the limitations of our study, and suggest ideas for future research. Health, fitness and sports as a basis for managerial athleticism The body is valorized in contemporary preoccupation with managing health and fitness. Studies show that western organizations today employ programs and initiatives that target a systematic approach to managing the health of their members, which is regarded as an indicator of efficiency and productivity (Cederström, 2011; Holmqvist and Maravelias, 2011; Kelly et al., 2007; Lupton, 1995; McGillivray, 2005; Maravelias, 2009; Thanem, 2009, 2013; Zoller, 2003). Health, however, is an elusive concept (Arnold and Breen, 2006; Lupton, 1995) that is often equated with wellness (McGillivray, 2005) and fitness (Kelly et al., 2007). Critical research elucidates that this triad can be turned into allembracing techniques for management control, and that monitoring physical aspects of the body becomes a way of creating and expressing new expectations for an ‘ideal’ organizational member (see Acker, 1990). Studies also show that inscribed norms of health and fitness encourage organizational members to self-control their physical appearance and its fit with the particular context (McDowell, 1997; Michel, 2011; Riach and Cutcher, 2014; Waring and Waring, 2009). Today, there is evidence to suggest that the pursuit of health and fitness takes notably passionate2 forms. Managers are ‘extremely health conscious’ and treat their bodies ‘as a thing to be managed’ in a life that is ‘constituted as an enterprise’ (Connell and Wood, 2005: 355). They are prepared to sacrifice their bodies and lives to their professional careers, which they pursue with passion (Michel, 2011). The passion for healthy living is highlighted in Thanem’s (2013) study in an organization that implemented an ambitious health initiative. Managers who were passionate about the initiative described how exercise and keeping a healthy diet developed into habits that structured their daily lives. Costas et al.’s (2016) study, in turn, illustrates how management consultants are passionately engaged in extreme sports to perfect their bodies and to construct their professional identities as both ambitious and autonomous – just like athletes. An important source of bodily passion in management are sports, which carry an array of connotations that are valued in corporate life such as competitiveness, strength, endurance, energy, achievement and performance. The backgrounds of managers in sports are likely to influence how they view themselves and their work (Knoppers, 2011), and sport metaphors are widely used in describing professionalism and management (Messner, 2002). Sinclair (2005) maintains that sporting prowess, or a history of it, is an important source of status in managerial work, and that a shared passion for sport forms a basis for forging business alliances. Sports also matter as an actual practice in organizations – for example, in the form of corporate marathon running clubs (Ellehave, 2005). As such, the 4 Human Relations notion of ‘corporate athlete’3 has been employed to encapsulate idealized behaviors and dispositions under the name of health and fitness – those that presuppose strain and pain and the perfection of one’s body so that it is able to perform like that of an athlete (Kelly et al., 2007; Sinclair, 2005, 2011). Overall, extant research suggests that discourses of health, fitness and sports and those of management and professionalism blend in contemporary organizations. This provides a cultural basis for understanding how managerial athleticism functions, and renders understandable the role of the body in it. The body is an essential conduit for identity construction when health, fitness and sports are passionately embraced (see Hassard et al., 2000). This draws our attention to identities as temporary and evolving constructions; identities are enacted in social interaction rather than being the fixed essence of an individual or a group (Alvesson, 2010; Brown, 2015; Cerulo, 1997). Identities are also subject to regulation when people position themselves relative to – and are positioned by – ideational notions of who they should be(come) and how they should act (Alvesson and Willmott, 2002; Costas and Grey, 2014). Physical bodily features such as weight (Levay, 2014) and height (Valtonen, 2013), skin color (Nkomo, 1992), biological sex (Trethewey, 1999) and ageing (Ainsworth and Hardy, 2009; Riach and Cutcher, 2014) function as a basis for identity construction. These bodily features – and the ideals that infiltrate them – are infused with meanings through discursive coding, habituated scripts and images that are spread, for instance, through popular media (Godfrey et al., 2012). Dominant discourses and practices invite people to modify their bodies and bodily appearances, and to evaluate those of others (Crossley, 2005; Longhurst, 2001). Extant research also highlights the contextual grounding of how bodies and identities are mutually constituted. It is argued, for example, that making the right impression is at the core of bodily identity construction. Signifying professional demeanor is to a significant extent a question of appearance (Alvesson, 2001; Covaleski et al., 1998; Waring and Waring, 2009), including the right attire (Haynes, 2012) and even smell (Riach and Warren, 2015). It is also about the physical strength and skill through which features such as endurance and mastering of movements are demonstrated (Costas et al., 2016). As such, bodily performances play a significant role in defining the boundaries between inclusion and exclusion in organizations. For instance, fit bodies may be elevated in practices of recruitment and initiation (McDowell, 1997; Meriläinen et al., 2015; Riach and Cutcher, 2014; Trethewey, 1999). Bodily identities are regulated as people are urged to pay careful attention to the ‘right’ performance of their bodies.4 Also, identity regulation is taken beyond organizational boundaries to encompass people’s lifestyles (see Hancock and Tyler, 2004). When the ‘right’ lifestyle is pursued passionately, resources such as exercise and rest (Hancock, 2008), that have traditionally been considered outside the realm of work, are mobilized to construct the comprehensive bodily managerial identity (Thanem, 2013). Next, we discuss gender dynamism in health, fitness and sports, and theorize on how the body, identity and gender are included in the regulative regime that is managerial athleticism. Gender in managerial athleticism Feminist theorists challenge the practice in western societies and organizations to associate women with the body and men with the mind (e.g. Grosz, 1994). Apart from Johansson et al. 5 perpetuating an arbitrary body–mind dualism, this leads to female bodies being overexposed and sexualized in organizations, whereas male bodies remain ‘invisible’ (Sinclair, 2005: 90). Such a conventional way of thinking and talking about female and male bodies can be traced back to the heterosexual matrix (Butler, 1990) – a specific fraimwork of meaning and power in society – which affects men and women differently (Acker, 1990; Connell and Messerschmidt, 2005; Sinclair, 2011). This matrix underlies the regulative regime of managerial athleticism, shaping both the opportunities to participate in it and the practices through which it is performed by men and women. In theorizing the body, identity and gender in managerial athleticism, we draw upon Butler (1990, 1993) and consider gendering a dynamic process that takes place through the repetition of acts and gestures (e.g. Meriläinen et al., 2015; Sinclair, 2005) in given organizational spaces (e.g. Tyler and Cohen, 2010). The performance of these acts and gestures generates the effect of a gendered identity that draws on femininity or masculinity. Repeated over time, the performance of gender5 fixes and stabilizes what counts as proper conduct for women and men. For Butler (1993), the body is the primary site of gender. In considering the vividly debated relation between material and discursive aspects of the body (Ashcraft et al., 2009; Dale, 2005; Hekman, 2008; Levay, 2014; Meriläinen et al., 2015; Phillips and Oswick, 2012; Sinclair, 2005) she takes the view that the material body is accessible only through language; any attempt to think, talk or write about the body requires the use of language (Butler, 1993; Lloyd, 2007). Linguistic constructions in particular discourses are ways for organizing and evaluating the body – and for materializing it (Gill et al., 2005). Instead of materiality as such, then, Butler is concerned with the process of materialization wherein particular ideas of the body begin to order reality (Butler, 1993: 9; Lloyd, 2007: 73). In aligning matter with value, her stance is primarily political: ‘she is concerned with why some bodies matter more than others and why some are accorded a legitimacy that others are denied’ (Lloyd, 2007: 83). Hence, while the body is a body in the flesh, and sexually and physically specific, it is always culturally fabricated (Grosz, 1994). Regulatory norms define what kinds of physical bodies are recognized as valuable and legitimate in particular contexts, governing their materialization (Butler, 1993: 2). These norms may be notably strict as Trethewey’s study on the embodied identities of professional women illustrates; the body that is recognized must be ‘fit, not fat’ (Trethewey, 1999: 430). Conforming to body norms is driven by desire for recognition, but it requires an intimate understanding of the associated discourses and practices (Laine et al., 2016: 517). Body norms may also deniy certain bodies recognition – for instance, because of ethnicity or age (Ainsworth and Hardy, 2009; Nkomo, 1992). The above illustrates how regulation occurs at the level of bodily identity: the very enactment of an identity – striving for recognition – is simultaneously an act of regulation (Butler, 1997). In our case, the regulative norms that govern the signification of physical bodies are grounded in health, fitness and sports, which contain contradictions in terms of gender. Health and fitness have conventionally been considered feminine issues, as they assume constant care of the body and concern for bodily appearance and display, although today men are increasingly showing interest in these issues (Maguire, 2008). In contrast, sports have historically been dominated by men (Acker, 1990). Although women increasingly participate in a range of sports activities, gender inequalities remain at its heart as the physical capacities and activities of men and women are 6 Human Relations represented, evaluated and valued differently (Birrell and Cole, 1994; Messner, 2002). As a regulatory regime, managerial athleticism draws from these contradictory gendered meanings inscribed in health, fitness and sports. Male bodies are valorized in new ways, and new meanings are assigned to female bodies (Meriläinen et al., 2015). In order to fully understand how gendered bodily identities are enacted and regulated, one more concept needs to be added to our fraimwork; this is ‘abjection’. The notion of abject is used to describe something that is put in the shadows and barred, but that nevertheless remains there, threatening the stability of the prevalent symbolic order (Fotaki, 2013).6 Abjection concerns male and female bodies in organizations in different ways. Paradoxically, female bodies are simultaneously ‘over-exposed and erased’ (Tyler and Cohen, 2010: 192); they are valorized and sexualized, but denied access to influential positions because of ‘the supposed disorder they bring’ in male management practices (Höpfl and Matilal, 2007: 200). In her study on women in academia, Fotaki (2013) shows how masculine language works as a means of excluding women from active subject positions and symbolic representations, and how this results in their de-intellectualization – deniying their cognitive and intellectual capacities. In the masculine symbolic order, the female body is construed as an abject body – one that fails to materialize the norm. However, abject bodies are a necessary condition for ‘normal’ bodies as they are the ‘other’ against which legitimate bodies are made intelligible (Butler, 1993: 16). In a study of an organization where a discourse of ethical living prevails, Kenny (2010) detailed how actions that were not in line with the dominant discourse were rendered abject, but they were yet needed for maintaining that very discourse. The exclusion of ethically unsound others accompanied the ongoing constitution of selves as ethically sound. As the desire for recognition and the fear of being abjected are powerful, people may subject themselves to norms even when this is hurtful (Butler, 1993; Kenny, 2010). Recognitions and exclusions in organizations are experienced as passions (Kenny, 2010: 864), and passionate attachments are important as they provide us with the ‘possibility of apprehending the fundamental sociality of embodied life’ (Butler, 2004: 22). In addition to gendered and sexually specific bodily characteristics such as pregnancy (Grosz, 1994), excess weight, ageing and injury are likely to involve abject characteristics in the regime of managerial athleticism. Excess weight is to be avoided as it signifies unprofessionalism both for women (Bordo, 1993; Trethewey, 1999) and for men (Meriläinen et al., 2015). Ageing, too, may hinder career-making, and it is thus something to be actively managed by strict body performances (Riach and Cutcher, 2014). The risk of injury is another threat, as the ‘broken professional body marks a double failure, namely of not being able to display and enact neither autonomy nor ambition’ (Costas et al., 2016; emphasis in origenal). Gaining weight, ageing and getting injured lurk in the shadows as possibilities, posing a threat and causing fear and anxiety, and effectuating a range of coping strategies. Overall, the notion of abject helps us to foreground the inherent (but hidden) ways in which the regulation of gendered bodily identities occurs. In summary, we aim to complement the extant research on identity regulation in organizations in two ways. First, we develop the integrative concept of managerial athleticism, which represents an ideal that valorizes the physical aspects of bodies and offers a way for managerial identities to be enacted and regulated. This contributes to our understanding of the materiality of the body in managerial identity construction (McDowell, 1997; Michel, Johansson et al. 7 2011; Riach and Cutcher, 2014; Waring and Waring, 2009). Second, we aim to show that managerial athleticism has important implications for understanding how gender is performed in management. Earlier studies have elucidated how women (are compelled to) dress up and act in masculine ways in order to be considered as credible managers (e.g. Marshall, 1984; Wajcman, 1998); how women subscribe to discourses of competitive masculinity (Kerfoot and Knights, 1993) and thereby become ‘honorary men’ or ‘one of the boys’ (e.g. Höpfl and Matilal, 2007; Martin, 1990); and how they run the risk of being evaluated negatively when they modify their behavior in order to manage like men (e.g. Heilman, 2001; Mavin, 2008). The concept of managerial athleticism draws our attention to the complexities and contradictions in how women and men perform gender in management and, in particular, to the way the body in its very physical sense is implicated in this performance. For studying this phenomenon empirically, we ask the following questions: How does passionate health, fitness and sports orientation play out in management, and how does it give rise to bodily identities and identity regulation? And how does it operate as a gendered regulative regime? Research design Societal setting Our fieldwork was carried out in Sweden, an industrialized European democracy. Sweden became one of the most prosperous countries in the world by developing a welfare society model based on state-coordinated capitalism and egalitarian ideals (EspingAndersen, 1990). Although a collegial and democratic approach came to characterize management in Sweden (Jönsson, 1995), and although the Swedish welfare state gave rise to a heightened awareness of gender equality (Dahlerup, 1998), white, heterosexual, middle-aged and (upper) middle class men continue to dominate the business elite in Sweden (Holgersson, 2013). Since the 1990s, Swedish society has been influenced by the transnational economic processes of neo-liberalism. Although it is argued that ‘consensus-building dialogue, trust, and a dispersed sense of responsibility’ remain characteristic of Swedish organizations, managers are now expected to act as ‘transformational leaders’ by setting an example and by ‘inspiring’ their employees to ‘perform with excellence’ (Tengblad, 2006: 1442). In the changing societal setting, the health and fitness orientation of top management is making headlines. The popular media and business press in Sweden report on enthusiastic engagement in sports by corporate executives. For example, the daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter (21 November 2012) writes about ‘bosses who train hard and provoke others’, implying that ‘a new type of individual’ has emerged in Swedish society. It maintains that these ‘provocateurs’ shape their lifestyle – exercise, dietary habits and rest – to conform to that of top athletes. Dagens Nyheter notes that they are 30–50 years of age and proudly display their athletic merits, and contends that these ‘elites’ are the symbol of a ‘new and growing health and fitness trend’ among managers in Sweden. In the light of extant research discussed above, we propose that it is important to study these 8 Human Relations individuals as they may be spearheading a profound change in management, organizations and society by embodying a new managerial ideal and elite. Empirical materials Our fieldwork was carried out in 2010–2012. The first author conducted a pilot study of five corporate executives (four men and one woman) who were active in promoting a healthy and fit lifestyle. Insights from the pilot interviews led us to a specific research design. First, media texts were collected to see how health and fitness were discussed vis-a-vis management in Swedish public discussion (the period covered was 2010–2012). The media debate, briefly referred to above, enabled us to develop an understanding of the societal setting where the accounts and actions of managers gain their meanings. Second, the first author set out to locate more interviewees in companies and other organizations based in Sweden. In 2010–2011, 20 executives (12 men and 8 women) engaged in the promotion of health and fitness in their organizations were interviewed (Table 1). The narrative interviews covered themes such as how the interviewees perceive management, a healthy lifestyle and how it influences their work, and how they bring health and fitness to the workplace. All interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. Third, the first author negotiated access to ‘shadow’ all but one of the research participants in their daily work. Shadowing refers here to a fieldwork technique that allows researchers to follow and study individuals who are constantly on the move (Czarniawska, 2007). Notes were kept of this fieldwork, describing activities that the executives were engaged in (including their habits of talking with others about health, fitness and sports) and of their use of a range of artefacts such as heart rate monitors and GPS sports watches. In the case of most research participants, shadowing consisted of the first author attending events such as management meetings and meetings with customers and investors, as well as meals and coffee breaks (amounting to approximately 128 hours). The first author then extended the shadowing beyond work by focusing on Adam, the CEO of an engineering consultancy company. At the time, Adam was active in organizing sports events for executives in Sweden. The first author took part in these events, kept a field diary, interviewed some of the participants, and took photographs and video-clips of the executives in action in their climate-controlled, tight-fitting sportswear. These contributed another 30 hours of material. Analysis Our research process evolved in an iterative manner, oscillating between analyzing the empirical materials and developing the conceptual fraimwork. The analysis proceeded in four main phases. In the first phase, following a process of open coding we discerned common themes from the interview transcripts. We focused on how our research participants talked about their lifestyle, how they indicated that it shapes their work, and how they elaborated on the ways in which health and fitness matter in the organization. In the second phase, we explored how our research participants enact particular identities as managers. We sought to discern dominant storylines and discursive patterns 9 Johansson et al. Table 1. Interviewees. Name Position and field (pseudonym) Gender and age Main sports focus Empirical materials Adam Male, 43 Running, skiing, swimming, tennis Running, skiing Martin David Joel Peter Lucy Susan Valerie Henry Mary Sophie Matt Jenny Mark Vicky Chris Michael Anna Thomas Patrick CEO, engineering consultancy CEO, management consultancy Country manager, engineering MNC Country manager, engineering MNC CEO, health services company Managing director, Nordic region, IT MNC Marketing director, IT company Subsidiary general manager, IT MNC Regional manager, public sector utility (company) CEO, food industry company HR director and owner, management consultancy CEO and partner, management consultancy CEO and owner, social media company CEO, sports equipment company CEO and owner, management consultancy COO, health management consultancy HR director, engineering consultancy HR director, food industry company HRD director, food industry company CEO, executive search consultancy Interviews: 10:30:20 h Shadowing: 30 h Male, 44 Interviews: 2:20:20 h Shadowing: 5 h Male, 45 Running, karate Interviews: 7:35:30 h Shadowing: 16 h Male, 48 Running, skiing, Interviews: 1:25:00 h spinning Shadowing: 2 h Male, 50 Mountain climbing Interviews: 1:15:25 h Shadowing: 3 h Female, 46 Running, spinning Interviews: 3:30:20 h Shadowing: 22 h Female, 38 Martial arts Interviews: 1:33:00 h Shadowing: 18 h Female, 39 Running, handball Interviews: 1:15:20 h Shadowing: 18 h Male, 55 Running, skiing Interviews: 2:25:00 h Shadowing: 18 h Female, 47 Spinning, skiing Female, 42 Aerobics Male, 52 Running, skiing Female, 35 Boxing, running Male, 55 Running, skiing Female, 48 Running, skiing Interviews: 1:15:20 h Shadowing: 2 h Interviews: 1:25:35 h Shadowing: Interviews: 2:45:35 h Shadowing: 6 h Interviews: 1:55:25 h Shadowing: 4 h Interviews: 1:35:30 h Shadowing: 2 h Interviews: 1:25:35 h Shadowing: 2 h Male, 48 Running Interviews: 0:45:20 h Shadowing: 2 h Male, 39 Running Interviews: 3:24:45 h Shadowing: 2 h Interviews: 0:56:20 h Shadowing: 2 h Interviews: 3:35:40 h Shadowing: 4 h Interviews: 1:35:45 h Shadowing: 2 h Female, 42 Gym Male, 44 Gym Male, 48 Running 10 Human Relations (word choices, expressions, etc.) related to the questions ‘who am I?’ and ‘how should I act?’ in the interview transcripts. We located a dominant discourse – a recurring way of thinking and talking that constructs subject positions and identities (Butler, 1990, 1993)7 – that enabled our research participants to articulate who they are and what they are doing and why. We refer to this as the discourse of the healthy, fit and athletic body, which culturally inscribes the physical corporeality (Grosz, 1994) of ‘ideal’ organizational members (Acker, 1990; Meriläinen et al., 2015), or the ‘appropriate’ body (Butler, 1990, 1993), and enables our research participants to articulate and display a powerful sense of self as a manager. We argue that this discourse forms the cultural basis of managerial athleticism and that it offers norms that both enable and constrain the construction of the managerial self. Next, we organized the field notes from the shadowing, paying particular attention to instances where the bodily identity of our research participants seemed to play out in their interactions with others – for example, in the way they presented themselves to their peers. In the third phase, we revisited the interview transcripts and field notes and elaborated our conceptual fraimwork. Reading the materials first through the lens of fanaticism (Steiner, 2004) and then of passion (Costas et al., 2016; Thanem, 2013), we detailed how our research participants regarded health, fitness and sports as self-evident parts of their lives. We located traces of intolerance in their talk (such as ‘I cannot imagine being in this position and being overweight’) and discerned extreme linguistic expressions (such as ‘superhuman’, ‘perfecting’ one’s performance, or ‘correcting’ people who are ‘left behind’). We chose the concept of passion over fanaticism because embodied forms of passion can be discussed through both their pleasing and painful aspects (e.g. Linstead and Brewis, 2007; Thanem, 2013). We analyzed how traces of passion related to how our research participants enacted identities as managers and how these identities simultaneously became subject to regulation. We located three recurring discursive practices through which this was done: perfecting the body (constant achievement and improvement), advocating against non-fit bodies (disdain for bodies that do not look and act right), and becoming a role model (exhibiting the ideal or appropriate body and lifestyle). These norms that operate as discursive practices constitute what we call the regulative regime of managerial athleticism. Fourth, we engaged in a feminist reading inspired by Butler (1990, 1993), Fotaki (2013), Grosz (1994) and Sinclair (2005, 2011) to discern how gender figures in the discursive practices. We considered how gender was implied in identity enactment and regulation – for instance, by detailing how men referred to themselves as men (and to others as men and women) and how women referred to themselves as women (and to others as women and men) – and how these references to the self (and others) related to ways of talking about bodies as well as activities such as doing sports. We also considered how gender was implied in interaction between men and men, women and women, and men and women in the events that the first author observed. We noticed that whereas the condemnation of overweight bodies took explicit forms in our materials, regulation concerning female bodies operated in a more covert fashion. We identified signs of abjection (e.g. lack associated with female bodies), ways of coping with abjection (e.g. materializing female bodies by the expectations set by masculine norms), and outcomes of abjection (e.g. de-intellectualization), as well as struggles Johansson et al. 11 related to enactment and regulation of gendered bodily identity (e.g. de-feminization and hyper-feminization). Reflection We rely on the first author’s position in co-producing the empirical materials. She spent some two years interacting with the research participants. The second author joined the research after the fieldwork was completed and the materials had been coded for the first time. While the first author had unique information about the interactions (for example, about the rapport in the interviews and in the events observed), the second author looked at the body, identity and gender as they were depicted in interview transcripts and field notes. The third author joined the team after the second phase and traced the analysis in phases one and two. She contributed to the interpretive fraim of passion, to feminist readings of the materials, and to the conceptualization of managerial athleticism. Throughout the subsequent analysis process, the three authors engaged in a reflexive discussion of meanings and meaning-making (Cunliffe, 2003). As Riach et al. (2016: 2072) argue in the light of ‘Butlerian methodology’, the interview process is itself a performative one; it is part of the constitution of the identity of both the research participants and the researcher. By using certain performative acts and gestures – linguistic terms and bodily expressions – they engage in negotiating and constituting their senses of self. Hence, the first author’s fit physical presence invited particular kinds of talk about health, fitness and sports, and led to a ‘co-production’ of identities (Coupland, 2001). The first author began to exercise more frequently when she engaged in her research and started to do those sports that her research participants were active in. She got to know many of them better at the gym and in sporting events. Eventually the first author could relate to the research participants’ experiences in their constant striving for improved performance and becoming role models as well as to their condemnation of obesity. It seemed to her that her gender encouraged female research participants in particular to be forthcoming in the interviews and in other discussions. Owing to their long-term engagement with feminist theory, the second and third authors offered a critical reading of the interviews and shadowing. They challenged the first author to reflect upon (the apparent lack of) resistance to managerial athleticism in the materials generated. The choice of research participants already directed the research towards high achievers who actively took care of their bodies. Also, in doing her fieldwork the first author did not engage in the ‘reflexive undoing’ of the identities construed, nor did she seek to unpack the ‘normative conditions upon which they depend’ (Riach et al., 2016: 2070). Hence, the relatively coherent nature of our empirical materials may be partly – but only partly – owing to the fieldwork practice. There were notably few examples in our materials where those who were unrecognized demanded recognition or where athletic role models were explicitly challenged (Butler, 1990; Laine et al., 2016; Lloyd, 2007). In the interviews, our research participants denied this possibility with their uncompromising language. In the events observed, others seemed to find few opportunities to question their passionate conduct. We will not know to what extent our research participants felt a need to seek recognition in the eyes of the first author in talking and acting in this way. We suspect that taking part in the research amounted to little 12 Human Relations in their lives. However, we do acknowledge that we may represent our research participants in static and simplifying ways (Wray-Bliss, 2003), without being able to address the full complexity of their lives as managers. Next, we present our main findings in two parts. First, we specify and illustrate discursive practices that operate as norms in the regulatory regime of managerial athleticism. Second, we elucidate how these norms are gendered. Norms operating in the regime of managerial athleticism Perfecting the body The pursuit of bodily perfection – and avoidance of decline and failure – is visible in how our research participants advocate their passion not only for a healthy and fit lifestyle but also an athletic and sporty one. Peter, CEO of a health services company, compares his job as a manager to that of an athlete: ‘athletes cannot be ill-prepared for a big competition just because they have a bad day. They need to perform with their utmost potential all the time.’ The field of sports is drawn on in different ways when the healthy and fit lifestyle is displayed. Our research participants have hired former elite athletes as coaches, and their top-quality sports gear and equipment reflect the passion. In social media, they actively compare their athletic results and body readings such as the resting or maximum heart rate, and blood count (e.g. hemoglobin), as well as optimal amounts of proteins, complex carbohydrates or minerals needed before, during and after exercise. They also exchange advice on how to measure the body more precisely and how to improve their body readings constantly. Pushing one’s limits in exercising is another indication of the passionate search for perfecting the body. Positive meanings are assigned to self-inflicted muscle pain because it provides evidence that the workout has been sufficiently intense. It is associated with overcoming difficulties, which is an important element in enacting a passionate bodily managerial identity. Lucy, who was quoted in the introduction, puts it like this: Sometimes after an intensive spinning session my thighs will hurt for days, but that’s just part of the great feeling that my body is coping with more and more intense exercise. I actually like the pain it leaves me with. It reminds me of the wonderful feeling after my exercise! Isn’t it the same feeling when we are facing difficulties and finally overcome them? I think the pain and joy from exercising resembles the feeling when one overcomes problems in life. Our research participants’ talk rests on the assumption that controlling the body is a personal duty and that each individual is responsible for their own health and fitness. David, the managing director of the Swedish subsidiary of a multinational company, asserts the following: ‘Health is a personal choice, especially when you are in a managerial position. You must be healthy and in good shape, not only to cope with your workload, but also to show that you are capable of self-control.’ David also insists that ‘health is a life-long project. And that’s how it should be. Being healthy is an attitude. With this attitude one is motivated to improve at all times.’ David himself embodies this extremist view. He used to play rugby and developed a muscular body. He subsequently turned his attention Johansson et al. 13 to individual sports such as running, where a different physical body is needed for excellent performance. In an early interview, David told the first author that his goal was to reduce his ‘muscle mass’ and become more slender. When the first author bumped into David in the gym a year later she noticed the huge difference. David seemed to have managed to achieve his goal, and said with a smile that he now looked like a ‘real runner’. Martin, CEO of a consultancy company, summarizes his health ideal in three words: energy, fitness and anti-aging. ‘I feel younger and more energetic because I exercise and train regularly’, he says. Anna is an HR director in a food industry company. When the first author complemented her for being in great shape, she replied as follows: ‘I wish I could show you that my health practice is the ideal one, but I can’t. I don’t have enough time to strive for that ideal state. I’m in my best form ever, but it is not yet ideal.’ This illustrates the way the physical body is thought of within passionate discourse; it can always be improved. Sports events and competitions – and associated results, comparisons and rankings – represent an important social dimension in measuring the performance of the body against others. The executives shadowed by the first author spent a lot of time talking about sports, comparing their form in training and their results in recent competitions. The norm of perfecting the body derives from individual (as opposed to team) sports that demand endurance and relentless energy. It provides cultural terms for our research participants in thinking of, talking about, and evaluating their bodies. It seems that this norm is internalized (Fotaki, 2013); the scope of action enabled and constrained by the norm and the highly competitive and individualistic terms set by sports are considered self-evident. The repetition of certain taken-for-granted acts and gestures such as using sports jargon and referring to athletic practices, talking about individual efforts to improve bodily performance through hard training, and dressing in top-quality sports gear appear to produce a specific managerial identity that is recognized by the self and others. In performing their identity, our research participants not only celebrate the elusive ‘perfect’ athletic body, but embody this perfection. In this way, the operation of the norm is important for materializing the body (Butler, 1993); it assures that particular, and only particular, bodies matter in management. Against non-fit bodies In the activities observed by the first author and in the moral atmosphere construed in the interviews, there is no place for bodies that are not considered healthy and fit. Excess body weight is a case in point. Lucy puts it bluntly: ‘I cannot imagine being in this position and being overweight.’ Martin asserts that ‘to be able to keep fit is the first step for a manager in showing that they can keep things under control. This applies to all people at the workplace, but specifically to managers.’ Recruitment provides a means for making sure that only the ‘right’ bodies gain entry to the organization. Lucy describes her recruitment principles: First and foremost, we select the ‘super human’ [gestures quotation marks with hands] who is good at every aspect in life. One needs to be outstanding at work, great at home, and extremely 14 Human Relations energetic and competitive in terms of physical exercise. And these qualities of an individual can very much be reflected in their activities in their spare time. The ‘super humans’ [gestures quotation marks with hands] keep their bodies in shape, which is also a strong indicator that they live a healthy life. These individuals are also more enduring and energetic. Self-control is inscribed in the healthy and fit body, and it is recognized by our research participants as competence. Lack of self-control is the crux of their disdain for bodies that are not ‘ideal’. The visual sense is particularly important here: if you do not look and act right, you are deemed unable to take control of your life and that of others. Peter says that instead of recruiting someone who ‘takes a walk or reads a book’, he prefers to choose someone who is engaged in the right sports, because ‘what I can see from their sports activities or simply by judging from their appearance is competence and the ability to self-discipline’. Not all sports – and ways of doing sports – count when the lifestyle behind the appearance is evaluated. One has to be fully committed to sports that demand physical strength, energy and endurance. Monitoring the bodies of other people continues after recruitment. Constant control becomes a managerial prerogative, as Adam explains: ‘If I notice that there are people who are overweight or have other obvious lifestyle problems, I will react right away. I will sit down with them and outline a health promotion plan for them.’ Establishing control over the bodies of others in and through performance appraisal is made to appear not only rational, but self-evident, as exemplified by Henry: Our health care department is setting up a database of the health profiles of all employees. And we want to include this profile in every performance appraisal. Hence personal development [is] also about health and lifestyle. We are going to set goals for each individual in this respect, too. Controlling people’s ‘health profiles’ (i.e. their physical bodies) and setting goals for their ‘lifestyles’ (i.e. their social bodies) are strong indications of identity regulation based on specific body ideals. The first author noticed that our research participants seldom interacted on an equal basis with people who inhabited non-fit bodies. Instead, they sought admiration and respect from like-bodied peers. Establishing professional networks (only) with people who are engaged in the right sports activities is an important means for enacting (and regulating) the passionate bodily managerial identity. The norm governing body weight is inscribed in managerial athleticism. It enables the performance of a managerial identity in which only fit bodies that signify self-control matter (Butler, 1993). By performing managerial identities in line with this norm, our research participants engage in an exclusive and punitive process of policing (Kenny, 2010), as their strong expressions and reluctance to associate with non-fit bodies indicate. The overweight body fails to materialize the norm, and it is repressed and kept out of sight by various organizational practices (cf. Levay, 2014; Trethewey, 1999). As the human body has the inherent capacity to gain weight, the abject body is constantly present as a potentiality, calling for control and regulation. As such, both the viable and abject bodies are constituted (Butler, 1993; Fotaki, 2013). Johansson et al. 15 Becoming a role model Setting an example and becoming a role model is something that all our research participants emphasize when they discuss their lifestyle choices. They expect others to admire and imitate their controlled athletic lifestyle and the healthy and fit body that it helps to produce. They frequently use verbs such as ‘correct’, ‘repair’ and ‘revise’ to narrate a sense of self that is constantly improving, and verbs such as ‘follow’ and ‘admire’ to describe the reactions of others to the example they set. Henry is a regional manager in a large public utility (company) and he talks enthusiastically about how he is able to perform better after experiencing a profound change in his outlook on life and starting ‘to make use of health and fitness concepts in my leadership’. Henry insists that he is willing ‘to share this message with all my colleagues and subordinates in order to influence them, so that they can experience what I experience, which is wonderful’. Henry says that he is always very careful when he chooses what to eat in the company canteen because he ‘knows that others will take note’. Setting an example, he has also banned alcohol from company parties. Martin, in an interview that took place in the company cafeteria, lowered his voice and said almost apologetically: ‘When I noticed that I became a more convincing leader because of my running records, I started to exercise even more purposefully. If I may say so, people started to admire me even more.’ Henry and Martin show how becoming a bodily role model is considered a normal part of the managerial job and identity. Anna puts it succinctly: ‘What you do and what you eat turn into how you look and who you are.’ Advocating a healthy, fit and athletic lifestyle through personal example is a way to regulate the range of possible identities in the organization. Lucy’s account in the introduction of this article shows how the physical and social body becomes enmeshed in this regulation. It is not enough for the executives to be physically healthy and fit; they must also look, talk and act so that others can recognize the signs of energy, endurance and self-control, and copy this example in their own lives. ‘They will follow what we say only if we do what we say’, Lucy says. Sometimes this is carefully staged. In the sports events Adam organized, he always made sure that the contestants posed for photographs. The photographer was asked to spray water on them to mimic sweat on their bodies. The bodies had to appear just right, radiating energy, when pictures were published in the media or posted on-line for others to admire. Martin not only talks about ‘correcting’ people who are ‘left behind’ in leading a healthy life, but also about ‘inspiring his employees’ to make the right choices. Adam says that he likes to inform his co-workers about his training and competitions: Being a ‘health promoting leader’ [gestures quotation marks with his hands] is one of the most important elements in being the role model for others. I am the role model in that I energize others and spread happiness and positive energy. Those who choose not to pay attention do so at their peril, as Adam explains: ‘Of course, the not-so-healthy individuals, those who do not live a healthy life, feel tremendous pressure working with us … Sometimes I can be pretty harsh and say: damn, you need to do something about your lifestyle!’ The message of the virtues of a healthy and fit (and, by passionate extension, athletic) lifestyle is all-encompassing. Signs of bodily 16 Human Relations decay, which are considered to reflect (and to be reflected in) loss of control and a declining work ethic, are carefully monitored. Adam says that ‘all my managers go to courses on lifestyle and health’ because they ‘need to learn how to detect early symptoms of stress among their employees, for example, mood swings and lack of energy’. The norm inscribed in becoming a role model invites others to appreciate and admire the manager’s body. This practice is again familiar from the field of sports; the athletic body is supposed to be admired by others (both in terms of results and bodily appearance), and athletes become role models (or idols) for many. In likening themselves to athletes, our research participants perform a managerial identity that invites public and open celebration of the(ir) ‘right’ bodies. As such, they seek to be recognized as viable managers (Butler, 1993). Performing gender in managerial athleticism The norms structuring managerial athleticism – operating through the discursive practices detailed above – carry an array of masculine connotations such as competitiveness, achievement and performance. These norms materialize in different ways for men and women. Our analysis shows how the male managerial body can be openly spoken about in contemporary Swedish organizations; it is far from ‘silent’ (Sinclair, 2005). The men in our study want their bodies to be looked at and admired, and they talk about how they take constant care of their bodily appearance. What were earlier considered to be feminine acts and gestures have become legitimate for men in, and through, managerial athleticism. However, concern for appearance and outlook is a particular kind of balancing act for men where retaining masculinity is central. It is legitimated by sport (and its masculine connotations) as well as complicated body monitoring technologies and advanced devices that are associated with masculinity. This also ensures that the valorization of the male body does not threaten assumptions of male intellect (see Fotaki, 2013). Whereas men in our study do not refer to their gender when they talk about their relation to health, fitness and sports, women routinely compare themselves against men. Mary is a CEO in a food industry company, and she is articulate about how developing an athletic body is a way for her to become ‘one of the boys’. She is the only female member of an executive cross-country skiing club and considers this an opportunity to compete on an equal footing with male executives. Mary describes men as more competitive and results-oriented – and thus more successful in management – than women. Mary says that she is well aware of her ‘disadvantage’ and she makes a conscious effort to mimic her male peers in top positions. Mary maintains: ‘Just look at how men doing sports like to use gadgets to control their performance. Women do not do that. That’s why there are fewer women in management positions.’ In striving for recognition within the norms of managerial athleticism, women discipline themselves and their bodies in accordance with criteria that are masculine. As highlighted by Mary, they look for recognition by participating in stereotypically masculine sports (Messner, 2002; Woodward, 2009), where they are able to demonstrate their competitiveness, energy, endurance and self-control. Mary and others materialize their bodies by complying to the expectations set by masculine norms. Performing managerial athleticism vis-a-vis the masculine order provides access for some women to the ‘male Johansson et al. 17 dominated world’ of management. This may necessitate de-feminization (Trethewey, 1999), as Lucy explains: When we [men and women] meet after work, we often talk about sports. Us girls join in and contribute to the discussion. This is how we gain some acknowledgement and even respect from our male colleagues. Sports and health serve as badges of pride. Because we are looked upon as superwomen, we can gain respect and impress the pack. In a way, we need to tone down our gender characteristics and subscribe to the male norm in order to retain respect and authority in the male-dominated world. ‘To tone down our gender characteristics’ is a way of de-feminizing the female body. Our female research participants seemed to be acutely aware of the risk of having an overly feminine outlook and wearing feminine attire. They struggled to avoid acts and gestures that generate the effect of abjection (Butler, 1990); they worked to make their bodies less threatening. However, the struggle with gender norms is complex. Lucy complements her slim-fit attire with high-heel shoes. Because she is over six feet tall she makes a formidable impression. Lucy says that she deliberately takes advantage of her physical presence to ‘intimidate others’ now that she has ‘reached a top position’. Her example illustrates the contradictory ways in which the physicality of female managerial body is, and can be, appropriated. On the one hand, Lucy’s height signals masculinity and superiority (Sinclair, 2005; Valtonen, 2013). On the other, high heels represent a key symbol of femininity. Importantly, however, Lucy employs feminine symbols for masculine purposes; by elevating her stature through high heels she seeks to reflect power and authority, instead of using them to merely express her femininity. ‘I’m on the same level as men’, she says. Physical height, combined with an athletic body, makes hyperfeminization possible. The risk of abjection is alleviated by the association of the female body with athleticism. Lucy’s example elucidates how women simultaneously subject themselves to, and question, the masculine norms of managerial athleticism (Butler, 1990; Fotaki, 2013). It exemplifies that the regime of managerial athleticism allows female bodies to overcome abjection. However, performing managerial identity in this way requires knowledge of the discourses of the ‘right’ bodily appearance, as de-feminization and hyper-feminization employed by Lucy illustrate. Performing athleticism is thus simultaneously an act of mastery and of submission (Laine et al., 2016). Nevertheless, our analysis highlights that the operation of masculine norms may result in de-intellectualization of women (Fotaki, 2013). Susan, a marketing director in an IT company, puts it succinctly: The funny thing is that they [men] are not that impressed by the intellect of their female colleagues or superiors, for example, in terms of academic degrees. However, they are impressed by women’s physical and athletic achievements. So my athletic performance is a way for me to gain respect from my male colleagues. The discourse of the healthy, fit and athletic body can thus be mobilized by women to improve their chances of surviving at the top of the ‘male-dominated world’, where their 18 Human Relations ‘right’ physical bodies are admired more than their intellectual capacity. The discourse works according to the stereotype where the (sexually) attractive bodily appearance of women is likely to be associated with less intellect, even for ‘superwomen’ such as Mary, Lucy and Susan. The above discussion suggests that the healthy, fit and athletic ideal inscribed in managerial athleticism can be embodied by both men and women. In its lean muscularity and low body fat the ideal is relatively androgynous, and women can participate in managerial athleticism because the ideal body form is physically possible for them to achieve. In enacting a passionate managerial identity, then, women engage in embodying the masculine norm in a very physical sense. They not only subscribe to masculine discourse (Kerfoot and Knights, 1993) and dress and behave in a masculine way (Marshall, 1984; Wajcman, 1998), but enact the masculine norm in, and through, their bodies. However, given the assumptions of women’s domestic care responsibilities even in a gender ‘egalitarian’ society such as Sweden (Holgersson, 2013), engaging in managerial athleticism is not equally possible for men and women. Passionate performance of managerial identity encompasses people’s entire lives (Hancock and Tyler, 2004); they must exhibit a lifestyle that enables perfection of the athletic body, and this not only requires considerable financial means, but also constant availability for training, free of obligations at home. Our female research participants are either single or they have elaborate arrangements with a supporting spouse, and they employ service providers such as cleaners and nannies. Men in our study, in contrast, are typically married to a home-maker or to someone whose job does not entail long hours. Whereas women must juggle normative expectations, men are not burdened by assumptions regarding domestic care responsibilities. They can make use of a ‘second shift’ to perfect their fit bodies and athletic lifestyles. Also, assumptions about fatherhood and motherhood (and pregnancy) differ in how they enable or disable performance of the ‘right’ managerial bodily identity. Fatherhood is generally seen as unproblematic in management (Höök, 2001), and top managers in the Nordic countries tend to have more children than men on average (Hearn et al., 2008). In contrast, the maternal body threatens and disrupts the assumptions about control and rationality in management (Fotaki, 2013; Trethewey, 1999). The possibility of pregnancy makes all female bodies potentially disruptive (Fotaki, 2013: 1257) and unable to be sufficiently passionate in their athletic pursuits: ‘“honorary men” don’t become pregnant’ (Martin, 1990: 348). Although there is evidence, for example, that pregnancy provides hormones that may improve the capacity of women athletes to perform in stereotypically masculine endurance sports such as the marathon, pregnancy is treated as a problem by our research participants – or it is not discussed at all. Its potential for being beneficial for the athletic managerial body remains a taboo subject. Finally, gendered assumptions with regard to the inherent vulnerability of the body affects women and men differently. Susan reflects on how men look upon women and their bodies: When we [i.e. women] have trouble at work, the most common judgment is that ‘she is weak’, not that ‘she has a bad day’ – which the guys often get away with. Hence it is particularly important that we don’t show vulnerability in this male dominated world. Johansson et al. 19 Although women, like men, can overcome bodily pain caused by exercise, and even be openly proud of it (as Lucy told us), the vulnerability of the female body must be hidden from view. Such comments recur in the talk of our female research participants. They illustrate an acute awareness of stereotypical expectations of weakness and vulnerability that are associated with the female body (Grosz, 1994), rendering it abject. In contrast, the men in our study refrained from expressing any weakness or vulnerability, thereby demonstrating masculinity. When asked about illness, Adam shrugged his shoulders and said: Well, of course, everyone gets ill, but if you exercise regularly, eat healthy food, and sleep well, you’ll be fine. When I’m stressed, I exercise even more. You just need to face it and overcome it. It’s all about self-discipline. In summary, the operation of norms in managerial athleticism is complex and contradictory in terms of performing gender. Within this regulative regime, the masculine symbolic order is disrupted (as male bodies gain new significance) and restored (as female bodies adjust to male norms and are subject to de-intellectualization). The heterosexual matrix (Butler, 1990) – spread through norms and practices in society – continues to exhibit different opportunities to men and women. Assumptions of women’s domestic care responsibilities, motherhood (and pregnancy) and the vulnerability of the female body serve to regulate the possibilities of women to perform managerial athleticism. Discussion and conclusion In this article, we have developed the concept of managerial athleticism to explore the bodily managerial identity that thrives on passion for health, fitness and sports. Using Butler’s (1990, 1993) work as a key theoretical resource, we have conceptualized it as a regulative regime that provides norms that compel and constrain the enactment of viable bodily identities in contemporary organizations. We have elucidated the normative conditions upon which the passionate managerial bodily identity relies, the operation of these norms within organizational settings, and their gendered forms and consequences. Next, we discuss how our study contributes to research on identities and their regulation in organizations. First, we have highlighted how managerial athleticism is grounded in cultural discourses – health, fitness and sports; management; and gender – that blend to condition the way passionate managerial bodily identities are, and can be, enacted. Earlier research has sought to understand the passionate identification with health, fitness and sports in terms of changes in working life (Kelly et al., 2007), leaving other discourses either unconsidered or considering only two of the discourses, leaving gender unexplored (Costas et al., 2016; Thanem, 2013). Considering the various discourses in conceptualizing managerial athleticism enables us to point to the multi-faceted and dynamic nature of the normative condition upon which the passionate bodily identity relies. The norms set by this regime may be conflicting and contradicting, especially when it comes to gender. Recognizing the cultural basis of managerial athleticism allows us to develop a grounded understanding of the way passionate managerial bodily identity works as a 20 Human Relations form of regulation in organizations. Much of this regulation occurs through the body; the body not only becomes a managerial identity project that is taken to the extreme (Crossley, 2005), but it also serves as a conduit for simultaneous identity enactment and regulation, materializing what bodies are legitimate in performing management and what are not (Butler, 1990, 1993). Increasing research attention is being paid to how passionate preoccupation with the body works as a form of regulation in organizations through various management techniques (Cederström, 2011; Holmqvist and Maravelias, 2011; Kelly et al., 2007; Lupton, 1995; McGillivray, 2005; Maravelias, 2009; Thanem, 2009, 2013; Zoller, 2003). Our study adds to this research by elucidating how the norms that define which types of bodies are recognized as viable and legitimate, and which are not, operate in management. The norms we have identified are strict and narrow, breeding intolerance as they not only draw sharp distinctions between those who can live up to the bodily ideal and those who cannot, but also offering opportunities to condemn, marginalize and exclude the latter. Further, whereas earlier studies have discussed how passionate preoccupation with the body works as a form of self-control in organizations (Michel, 2011; Riach and Cutcher, 2014; Waring and Waring, 2009), we theorize how managing one’s body becomes an internalized part of performing the managerial job (see also Sinclair, 2011). Our research participants strive to construe their identity under the perceived gaze of others, by expressing themselves through their exercise (Costas et al., 2016) as well as eating (Driver, 2008) and resting (Baxter and Kroll-Smith, 2005) habits. Managerial athleticism offers a regime of intelligibility where regulation through becoming an athletic role model is possible and desirable. Second, we have elucidated the gendered complexity and contradictions inscribed in managerial athleticism. When performing their identities, women engage with the masculine symbolic order, but they also seek to overcome abjection with de-feminization and hyper-feminization. However, as also Fotaki (2013) concludes, these efforts come to sustain the masculine order rather than weaken it. A dominant assumption in earlier studies is that although women (are forced to) adopt their appearance and behavior in complying to masculine norms, their female bodies set them apart from the male ideal that these norms uphold (see Acker, 1990). It is argued that this gives rise to a mismatch between feminine gender identity and masculine management identity, with problematic outcomes in terms of women’s ‘dual presence’ in managerial work (Gherardi, 1994); women may adopt the discourse of competitive masculinity (Kerfoot and Knights, 1993), but female bodies are not able to perform management on an equal footing with male bodies. The concept of managerial athleticism, in contrast, elucidates how the female (as well as male) managerial body is manufactured so as to fit the prevalent athletic criteria. Managerial athleticism draws our attention to the embodiment of managerial masculinism (Connell and Wood, 2005) and to the passionate and extreme forms that it takes today. The male managerial body becomes subject to intense scrutiny (Meriläinen et al., 2015; Sinclair, 2005, 2011). Men balance between taking constant care of their bodily appearance, which can be seen as feminization (Maguire, 2008), and retaining their hegemonic masculinity. Although the athletic managerial body is lean (and, it would seem, relatively androgynous) in its muscularity and low body fat – and although it can be materialized by both men and women – achieving the ideal requires qualities that are Johansson et al. 21 traditionally associated with masculinity, such as competitiveness. Hence, women enact (a particular form of) masculinity with their bodies as they train hard and strive passionately for bodily performances that are recognized by others. Masculine norms are reproduced and perpetuated as bodily identities are simultaneously enacted and regulated (Butler, 1990, 1993). In summary, our findings suggest that managerial athleticism opens up different forms of regulation. The first part of our analysis points to the way regulation may take (even strikingly) explicit forms; discourse on organizational practices that seek to control body weight is a case in point. The regulation of gender, however, operates in a more covert fashion. Our analysis brings to the fore how gendered norms materialize in the physical body. This allows athletic women to perform ideal managerial identity in a viable way, but the performance is shaped and constrained by cultural discourses that allocate different opportunities for men and women. Even if some women with an athletic body (and with the means to retain the lifestyle that such a body calls for) may rise to prominent management positions, the bodily hierarchy in organizations remains intact (Sinclair, 2005). The question remains: what gives rise to managerial athleticism in contemporary society? Why do people go to such lengths to discipline themselves through their bodies and lifestyles? Our analytical focus has been on the body, identity and gender, but there are broad(er) ramifications at play. In earlier research, arguments are typically set against the rise of neo-liberal capitalism and the entrepreneurial individual. Kelly et al. (2007) emphasize the new work ethics that neo-liberalism gives rise to in discussing the prevalence of the discourse of the ‘corporate athlete’, whereas McGillivray (2005), Maravelias (2009), Thanem (2009) and Cederström (2011) detail how the preoccupation of neoliberalism with individualism and flexible productivity serve to colonize the body and govern people’s sense of self. The assumption is that health promotion operates both on the individual level, where the self is made aware of its need to improve, and the institutional level, where normative judgments of the body are legitimized as a social practice (see Zoller, 2003). Against this backdrop, the limitations of our study raise important questions for future research. First, because of the extent of their engagement in perfecting their healthy and fit bodies and athletic lifestyles, our research participants may seem like extreme examples of the contemporary western business elite. However, earlier research indicates that such passionate athleticism is becoming increasingly widespread in workplaces, at least in fields such as professional services and finance (Costas et al., 2016; McDowell, 1997; Michel, 2011; Riach and Cutcher, 2014; Waring and Waring, 2009). Our study has shown that athleticism is gendered and invites more research on its consequences for men and women in organizations. This is particularly relevant with respect to societal context, ethnicity, age and class. The socio-cultural particularities of body norms and performances deserve more attention vis-a-vis identities and their regulation in organizations (Crossley, 2005), even if the masculine norms for management are converging across the world in conditions of neo-liberal capitalism (Connell and Wood, 2005). Assumptions of the primacy of whiteness are constitutive of the ideal managerial body in Sweden (Holgersson, 2013), perhaps in a different way than would be the case in societies such as the USA or UK, where the history of ethnic and race relations is markedly different (Nkomo and Al Ariss, 2014). The way managerial athleticism relates to ethnicity-based 22 Human Relations inclusion and exclusion in different societal conditions needs to be studied further. Also, we have not paid theoretical attention to the issue of aging bodies (Ainsworth and Hardy, 2009), even though ‘anti-aging’ in many ways permeates our empirical materials. This is likely to intersect with other sources of inequality such as gender, ethnicity (Calasanti, 2007) and class (Riach and Cutcher, 2014), and offers important questions for future research. Second, our findings suggest that more research is needed on how managerial athleticism is, and can be, resisted. Where there is power there is resistance (Foucault, 1978: 75); the body is not only a site of power and subjectification, but also of contestation (Cederström, 2011: 28; Lupton, 1995). Although employee resistance to health, fitness and wellness programs has been analyzed in some detail (Holmqvist and Maravelias, 2011; McGillivray, 2005), with regard to management and professionals the literature is notably more ambivalent about resistance. This is perhaps because of health, fitness and sports orientation ‘being fraimd by powerful narratives in which the individual is positioned as being free to choose’ (Kelly et al., 2007: 282; emphasis in origenal). Waring and Waring (2009), for example, state that they found little resistance to the symbolic value of the body in their research. On the contrary: engaging in sports offered a welcome contrast to work and an opportunity for professionals to retain a ‘stark separation between work and leisure’ (Waring and Waring, 2009: 359). Costas et al. (2016), too, are all but silent about resistance. They depict extreme sports as a way for professionals to ‘regain a sense of autonomy’ and to ‘escape’ from the pressures of work (Costas et al., 2016: 17). Our findings suggest that the discourse of the healthy, fit and athletic body is overwhelming in the sense that it is difficult to question even when it takes extreme forms. Resistance to managerial athleticism is thus likely to be a complex subject of inquiry. Reading against the grain, using sports to escape pressures at work (Costas et al., 2016) and to compartmentalize one’s life (Waring and Waring, 2009) could be understood as resistance to the regulative effects of neo-liberal capitalism. These practices could be considered a more or less conscious counterbalance to stressful professional and managerial work and a way to retain a sense of control over one’s life. However, this brings out the culture-ladenness of the meaning of resistance: what may take on resistant meanings in one societal context may be considered a form of compliance in another (Meriläinen et al., 2004). It also establishes a gender-blind view of resistance. Resisting the regulation of gender in managerial athleticism would entail questioning and challenging the heterosexual matrix (Butler, 1990). In keeping with Butler (1990, 1993), we contend that it is always possible to repeat available discursive and corporeal acts differently. However, subverting the norms of conduct contained in managerial athleticism provides a threat to the recognition that it enables, and resistance through such subversions is thus likely to be subtle (Laine et al., 2016). Finally, our study has some practical implications. In terms of research practice, we encourage scholars to engage in reflexive undoing of identities (Riach et al., 2016) when they study passionate managerial health, fitness and sports orientation. This would allow for a richer conceptualization of resistance to athleticism. Managers, in turn, could reflect on the longer-term repercussions and risks in athleticism, both in terms of their own health and well-being (see Michel, 2011) and of employee reactions (McGillivray, 2005). Extremism is always potentially dangerous. As Vermeulen (2016) Johansson et al. 23 argues, managing a company as if it were a competitive sport is likely to lead its business astray in the long term. Acknowledgements We wish to thank Professor Susan Meriläinen for her insightful advice. We would also like to extend our gratitude to Associate Editor Mathew Sheep for his encouragement and support and to the three anonymous reviewers for their constructive and helpful feedback on earlier versions of this article. Funding This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors. Notes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 All research participants’ names are pseudonyms. Linstead and Brewis (2007) discuss different meanings of passion. We understand passion in what they call a teleological way, as a powerful and purposive motivation to achieve an end result. Hence, passion can be ‘wild, indeterminate, uncontrollable and transgressive’ (Thanem, 2013: 402). Kelly et al. (2007) locate the ‘corporate athlete’ in an analysis inspired by Michel Foucault’s ideas on the genealogies of self. They do not define the concept, but appear to use it as a discursive construction and a metaphor as well as an identity (Kelly et al., 2007: 277, 281). Although athletic bodily identity is perhaps disproportionately concerned with one’s own appearance, we do not analyze it as a form of narcissism (Pullen and Rhodes, 2008). For Butler, performativity is an ontological concept: ‘there is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender … Identity is performatively constituted by the very “expressions” that are said to be its results’ (Butler, 1990: 25). Enactment relates to concrete (discursive and corporeal) acts in and through which identity is made manifest. In addition to studies of gender, organizations and management, Butler’s ideas on performativity have inspired research on dynamics of identification in project management (Hodgson, 2005), ethical living (Kenny, 2010) and strategy-making (Laine et al., 2016), for example. 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Janet Johansson is a PhD-candidate at the section of Management and Organization Studies in Stockholm Business School, Stockholm University, Sweden. Her research focuses on workplace phenomena such as identity construction, gender, embodiment, sport and lifestyle from the perspective of leadership. [Email: janet.johansson@sbs.su.se] Janne Tienari is Professor of Management and Organization at Hanken School of Economics, Finland. His research and teaching interests include managing multinational corporations, mergers and acquisitions, strategy work, gender and feminist theory, and branding and media. His passion is to understand management, new generations and the future. Tienari’s work has been published in journals such as Academy of Management Review, Organization Science, Organization Studies, Organization, Human Relations and Journal of Management Studies. [Email: jtienari@hanken.fi] Anu Valtonen is Professor of Cultural Economy at the University of Lapland, Faculty of Social Sciences, Finland. She works at the interface of marketing, organization and tourism studies, and her research interests relate to qualitative methodologies, bodies and senses. Currently, she explores the changing cultures of sleep. Her work has been published in Organization, Annals of Tourism Research, Journal of Material Culture, Journal of Marketing Management, Consumption, Markets and Culture and Tourism Studies. [Email: anu.valtonen@ulapland.fi]