The Evolution of Organizational Archetypes: From the American to the Entrepreneurial Dream

Abstract

Throughout much of the twentieth century, the image of the organization man dominated the cultural imagination and undergirded capitalist organizing. Yet, in the last 20 years, there has been a signal shift away from the organization man and toward the entrepreneur as an ideal. Although scholars have suggested that entrepreneurship in the new economy is rooted in neoliberal ideology, I argue that neoliberalism alone does not account for the ease with which entrepreneurialism has become a dominant discourse. By critically examining entrepreneurial discourse as communicated through US business periodicals from 2000 to 2009, I present a case for the “entrepreneurial man” as formed at the partial inclusion and/or rejection of aspects of the self made man, organization man, and neoliberalism. Ultimately, this analysis critiques the entrepreneurial man archetype as a rejection of the social contract and the embracing of a privatized, entrepreneurial American dream.

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