Abstract
Recent developments in managerial theory and practice practically ensure the continued widespread use of personality testing (Miller & Rose, 1990). In this article I argue why communication theorists ought to attend to the ontology of personhood implied in the discourse of personality exams and the biopolitics associated with the exams, implementation in organizational life. I specifically focus on how the exams function as a form of government by providing authorities with a technique for engineering the workplace and for disciplining unruly employees. I also address how personality exams function as a subjectifying technology by providing individuals with a formalized discourse for "self-knowledge." I conclude by discussing the tensions that follow from the exams' simultaneous invocation of autonomous individualism and race-, class-, and gender-based articulations of the normal individual.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 189-218 |
Number of pages | 30 |
Journal | Communication Theory |
Volume | 7 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Aug 1997 |
Externally published | Yes |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Communication
- Language and Linguistics
- Linguistics and Language