Management, dispositions, and particular emotions: Young managers of Lisbon
Résumé
In this paper we aim to present the preliminary empirical results of our PhD Thesis, a study on the dispositions of the young managers of Lisbon. Approaching the young manager as a "plural individual" (Lahire 1998), we try to argue that the manager's emotional dispositions are dynamic. In other words, we hold that we can observe a synchronic variation of their dispositions. To demonstrate it, we have built 3 types of dispositions of particular emotions: [1] Sacrifice and hedonism; [2] Loyalty and confidence; [3] Authority and persuasion. We furthermore examine its oscillation within different contexts, the couple and the company. The following discussion will outline an account of the notion "emotional socialisation", by showing how can we build upon it by focusing on the dispositions variability of the individual trajectories within contexts. This paper will conclude with an epistemological discussion of Lahire's theory of action and the concept of "plural individual". Not only by relating it to other perspectives on the individual (like Bourdieu's "habitus", or Jon Elster's "multiple self"), but by trying to fight one of the most persistent epistemological problems of the sociology of emotions pertinent today: essentialism.