Thinking the unthinkable: managerialization of work related suicides as a framing process

Managerialism has been studied in many ways, including diffusion of management techniques notably in public sectors, management ideology or the colonization of everyday life by management thought. However, the process leading to managerialism, namely managerialization, has been largely unexplored in this literature. This article draws upon framing theory to better understand managerialization processes. The article offers two case studies that investigate following theoretical assumptions: (1) managerialization acts as a framing process on every kind of issue; (2) managerialization has framing process characteristics. Two frame analysis based on newspaper articles about work related suicide show that one of the identified frames has strong managerial characteristics and suggest that managerialization took place as a set of framing processes. Taken together, these studies provide insight to characterize the process of managerialization. Research implications and limitations are discussed in order to highlight directions for futher researchs.