Managerial sensemaking and occupational identities in Britain and Italy: The role of management magazines in the process of discursive construction

Processes of discursive construction in a British and an Italian personnel management magazine are analysed to show the ways in which the magazines, both as genre forms and providers of narratives and discursive resources, provide 'story boards' for their readers which are helpful to them when it comes to making sense of the tensions and dilemmas associated with their managerial roles. Tensions and occupational dilemmas generally associated with personnel management work are identified and variations found in the discursive constructions associated with the two magazines are related, with reservations, to cultural and institutional differences between British and Italian human resource management.