The Top Executive on Undercover Boss

Abstract

Reality television has customarily been studied as an arena where individuals perform who they are within episodic and often highly dramatic contexts. This work, however, finds that the program Undercover Boss offers a different approach: The corporate persona, embodied through the “undercover” top executive, interacts with front-line workers and, in the process, (1) elicits from employees their own self-governing observations, (2) focuses on employees who appear to be significant role models (for good or ill), and (3) provides rewards to employees who exhibited positive self-governing or role modeling. With this approach, Undercover Boss offers up the image of a beneficent corporate persona whose vision is consonant with American values and norms. The presence of the corporate persona needs careful consideration, as it can serve to elide systemic dysfunctions that privilege corporations. A critical perspective on self-governing calls for acknowledging such imbalances as a first step toward encouraging individuals and corporations to negotiate a more equitable existence.