“Selling Your Soul, How Much is Your Soul Worth?”

Drucker argued that knowledge workers themselves are responsible for their contribution to their companies; they must be “their own chief executive officers” and “manage themselves”. This paper aims to critically assess arguments of Drucker and other management scholars on knowledge workers using the concept of neoliberal governmentality. Debates on neoliberal governmentality suggest that individuals are now controlled through responsible self-management. This paper argues that when we read management scholars’ suggestions to knowledge workers accordingly, calls for self-management suggest more intense control of knowledge workers. Based on in-depth interviews conducted with twenty Turkish knowledge workers, this paper also explains the extent to which they practice
self-management, and how they live through that kind of experience.