“…In terms of presenting the specific approach to dramaturgy attempted here, more complex issues arise. Dramaturgy, after an apparent surge in interest as a social science method in the 1970s and 1980s (Brissett and Edgley, 1975; Combs and Mansfield, 1976; Gronbeck, 1980; Lyman and Scott, 1975), has not become a dominant metaphor for organizational life. Indeed it was arguably not until the 1980s that it began to appear on a widespread basis in organizational analysis (Caldwell and O'Reilly, 1982; Gardner and Martinko, 1988; Mangham and Overington, 1982, 1987; Wood and Mitchell, 1981), but work appearing under its heading is ‘characterised by considerable confusion over the scope, application and utility of this perspective’ (Oswick et al.…”