interviews of current and former managers of two multinational metal corporations. The findings suggest that new management ideas may be in juxtaposition with the prevailing culture. The conflict between the culture and new management ideas may generate forms of resistance among managers, namely the ridiculing of new ideas, particularly so called soft management ideas. Resistance of management ideas may serve as a means of maintaining historically prominent masculine organizational and professional culture. Organizational norms restrain employees from taking an overly enthusiastic view of new management ideas. Especially in previous decades, the cultural characteristics of metal industry corporations created the feeling that no artificial or soft models are needed for company management. However, nowadays the ridiculing way of talking of new management ideas has partly faded away and it is now acceptable to talk about
the softer side of management. The paper indicates the
importance of taking the historical development of organizations and the gendered features of their culture into account when introducing new management ideas and practices.