secure further control over the behavioural outcomes of MTD.The foregoing discussion has revealed the multifaceted nature of MTD at IP. On one level, managers sought after and, in the main, achieved clear-cut career objectives which were consistent with the firm's culture transmission strategy. This process is politically charged: through networking, and socialization. By lobbying powerful executives, individuals seek to influence the circumstances that determine their career. These circumstances constitute and define the organizational structures, rules of behaviour, forms of language and cultural manifestations which are reproduced in a structurationist fashion. Riley (1983: 435) suggests that by using such structures again and again, people 're-legitimate what was past, provide a medium for the present and set the stage for the future'.The MTD-culture dialectic is thus legitimized by individuals' career aspirations, the accomplishment of which subsequently reaffirms the functional value of MTD for both the individual and the organization. This recursiveness illustrates the progressive reconstitution of the social systems that comprise career management. We argue that the firm's capacity to deliver on the promise of a successful corporate career restrains managers from self-interested behaviour which would jeopardize the realization of this dream. Thus, potential ideological conflicts are resolved. Normative control (Etzioni 1961) over managers' actions is in essence a fait accompli, since they willingly collude in upholding the corporate icon of the MTD system within which the notion of a successful corporate career is enshrined. Echoing Burawoy's (1979) 'hegemonic despotism', whereby the firm achieves control through consent rather than force, we suggest that at IP, commitment is 'manufactured' through a combination of promises of manageri al accomplishment, career advancement, visits to the Centre and IPI and high financial rewards...
