Featured case:
CULT Girl: Responsible Management and
Self-Management of Subjectivity at Work

Rasmus discusses the central dilemmas in CULT Girl, the challenges involved in deciding what is 'right' and 'wrong', and why it's important to consider the customer too.

Personal versus professional

The case was inspired by the Cultpige documentary which follows the young women to a boot camp that is supposed to prepare them for the ‘CULT Girl’ work, and then to the various events where they ‘perform’.

What interested me was how blurry the lines remained to them between their personal and their professional identities. Some love the work, others feel that they were never prepared for it.

Teaching the case

Most discussions are about the extent to which the young women are ‘blinded’ by what they do – the immediate popularity, the party atmosphere, the power to infatuate men, and the sometimes ‘cult-like’ group dynamics which the company actively encourages.

What students disagree on is whether working as a CULT Girl is really a ‘free choice’, or if it results in illusions about identity and where to draw the line. Scandinavian students are fairly relaxed about these issues, but I would love to hear reactions from different cultures in other parts of the world.

Rules of the game

We also thought it very important to encourage discussion about the male ‘customers’ – usually very drunk. Because the rules of conduct are fairly open – much more so than, for example, at a strip club – the guys who end up with a drink may also end up with a broken heart.

Important learning opportunities

First, the case highlights the dilemma that ensues when the workplace also becomes a primary sphere of self-development for individual employees  –  a common theme in contemporary Northern European organisational life. The case illustrates how difficult the ‘just be yourself’ task of self-management can be.

Second, the case explores the nature of responsible management when working with self-managing employees. For many students, the insight that there is no single, objective right answer is an eye-opener.

Staying connected

I highly recommend writing cases with undergraduate students as it’s a great experience and a good way to stay connected with what goes on in the classroom.

Watch a short clip from the Cultpige documentary

The authors

Rasmus Johnsen, Assistant Professor, Copenhagen Business School
e rj.mpp@cbs.dk

Navid Baharlooie, Student Assistant at Copenhagen Business School, now Executive Trainee at Telenor DK