`Know Thyself': Self-Awareness, Self-Formation and Managing

Abstract

In this paper, I argue that self-knowledge is an important dimension of our understanding of management as a practice. Using the work of Foucault, I trace a distinction between self-awareness and self-formation. I argue that contemporary mechanisms of self-knowledge available in management education and development are premised on self-awareness and that this sustains a broader discourse of management as the interpretation and satisfaction of needs. This discourse is inherently hierarchical. I argue that revisiting the concept of self-formation allows for the articulation of an understanding of managing and organizing based on the concept of rights.