This free online course, Contemporary issuesin managing, introduces three contemporary approaches (managing through organisational culture, managing through internal marketing, and managing through collective leadership). These approaches require you to think critically and challenge ideas and received wisdom. Traditionally, managing was born out of what Knights and Willmott (2012) call ‘direct control’ (Taylorism), where ‘foremen’ and supervisors were employed to watch staff at all times. In contemporary times, both coercion and direct supervision are still both used, but less often because other methods are also available. These different techniques are seductive because they entice employees to overwork by insinuating that being part of the organisation is like belonging to ‘a family’ where commitment is high, and identity becomes hugely dependant on ‘loving their job’.