Browsing by Author "Cox, Alexia Georgina"

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    The application and modification of human resource management in the critical analysis of Harry Potter
    (Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 2016-03) Cox, Alexia Georgina; Roux, Daniel; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of English.
    ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis revisits the much-discredited idea of a “common sense” way of reading a literary text. It proposes that a common sense reading – one that treats narrative fictions as reflections of the real world, and that focuses on the didactic message of the story – can provide particular kinds of insights about social life. Such insights are not readily available to the hermeneutics of suspicion that characterise literary and cultural studies in the academy today. The case study for this exercise is J.K. Rowling’s popular Harry Potter series, and the theoretical wager advanced in this thesis is that Human Resource Management (HRM) theory can act as a powerful, if unconventional, tool for exploring common sense assumptions about human behaviour in the context of neoliberal Western culture. In order to conduct this kind of theoretical experiment, it is necessary for a narrative to comply with three components: (1) a formal institution must be present; (2) the institution can be regarded as a learning organization, (3) there is a clearly articulated common objective against which to compare and analyse individual behaviour. By ensuring that these three components are present in the narrative, the language of HRM, its theory and general practices, can be retooled for a specialised form of literary analysis that provides insight into common sense assumptions that circulate in present-day society. This can be achieved by applying four HRM relatable topics: (1) organizational structure, (2) organizational culture, (3) identity and emotional intelligence and (4) leadership. This thesis demonstrates how organizational structure theory can be used to identify Hogwarts, the fictional school, as a bureaucratic institution. By positioning the fictional characters within this specific framework, it becomes possible to determine various culturally mediated dispositions by analysing the bureaucratic structure in light of the issues typical of such a structure in HRM theory. HRM theory, then, provides a language for thinking about the historical context and the impact of environmental forces on Hogwarts in a way that employs the fictional school as a didactic model that speaks to real-world situations. Simultaneously, the application of HRM theory allows us a unique way of thinking about narrative design and plot development in relation to institutional processes. In other words, HRM theory allows us to consider the possible connections between a fictional environment and the real world, while also providing us with an unusual approach to narratology: one that thinks about literary actors, functions, narrative development and so on in relation to the idea of an institution or organisation. HRM processes such as recruitment, career development, performance management etc. can find surprising applications in literary analysis, especially when benchmarked against scholarly findings about British national culture and its predominantly neoliberal economic base. In general, this thesis argues that it is not only possible to apply general HRM theory language, theory, and practice to an apposite narrative, but also that this theory can serve as a viable tool for surfacing and critiquing particular cultural assumptions embedded in a text. Such a critique can be called a “common sense” critique because it is not based on a hidden foundation such as class conflict, the operation of the unconscious or the concealed structure of the sign, but instead on empirically based, practical scholarly observations working in the service of institutional efficiency.