Not-precisely-Work: Golf, entertainment and imbibement among japanese business executives in Singapore

Eyal Ben-Ari

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

3 Scopus citations

Abstract

In this chapter I examine a set of Japanese corporate activities that Allison (1994: 100) terms “not-precisely-work.�? Specifically, I explore the place of three important activities - dining, drinking, and golf - in the lives of Japanese business expatriates in Singapore. Whereas in my other contribution to this volume I focused on the discursive and cognitive dimensions of the expatriate experience, here I direct my attention to the behavioral level. Dining, drinking and golfing belong to what I have called the “interstices�? (Ben-Ari, 1990; 1994) of Japan’s organizational life: i.e. to the narrow time-junctures in between “regular�? periods of work activity. But they are not residual to, somehow unimportant aspects of, the dynamics of these enterprises. Rather, as a very long line of scholars have shown!, they are central to such matters as the creation of work-group solidarity, the actualization of managerial control, or the resolution of conflict.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationJapan in Singapore
Subtitle of host publicationCultural Occurrences and Cultural Flows
PublisherTaylor and Francis
Pages150-174
Number of pages25
ISBN (Electronic)9781136116100
ISBN (Print)0700712453, 9780700712458
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2013

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2000 Eyal Ben-Ari and John Clammer.

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