Management in the Neoliberal Era: Between the Self-Entrepreneur, the Indebted Man, and Capitalist Realism

Abstract

Neoliberalism, more than a set of economic policies, constitutes a regime of truth that reorganizes social life, work, and subjectivity. Drawing on the works of Michel Foucault, Maurizio Lazzarato, and Mark Fisher, this article discusses how neoliberal capitalism shapes how individuals perceive themselves, how they relate to organizations, and how they manage their lives. Neoliberalism transforms the subject into an enterprise of the self, captures them through the logic of debt, and limits their capacity to imagine alternatives to the prevailing model, consolidating capitalist realism. It is argued that management, by incorporating managerial practices based on meritocracy, self-control, emotional surveillance, and hyper-competitiveness, becomes a central apparatus in the production of this neoliberal subjectivity. It concludes that understanding these mechanisms is essential for proposing more humane, ethical, and critical management models.