Managing in the new economy: A revolutionary status quo.

Abstract

Managing in the New Economy analyzes oral interviews and media discourse to explore the optimism and ultimate disillusionment with what came to be known as the New Economy, that period in the late 1990s when the internet and dot-com seemed to promise a new age of business and management. Focusing on one particular company, personalitytests.com, I show how the idealistic presumptions that the New Economy would revolutionize work and substantially restructure wealth ultimately failed to live up to their promise. Organized around a study of employee experience at this particular company, my dissertation critically examines the economic, social and cultural contexts that constitute the experiences of personalitytests.com's employees. I begin my dissertation by examining the business periodical <italic> Business Week</italic> to discuss the emergence of the New Economy. I then discuss the background and context for those expectations about the New Economy, and how this played out in personalitytests.com. Because the co-founders of personalitytests.com attended business school, I look at how business schools responded to the New Economy to gain further insight into how the New Economy was understood and what it meant. I conclude by returning to personalitytests.com and consider the role that its dot-corn culture led to its decline.