Market expansion is a fundamental characteristic of capitalist economies, with its cultural consequences often examined through the lens of commodification. This paper introduces managerialization—a novel channel through which market expansion shapes perceptions of everyday life. Managerialization is using management principles of control and optimization to interpret social domains traditionally outside business and organization. Using two computational approaches, we trace the historical evolution of managerialization through management metaphors in public discourse from 1950 to 2020. Our analysis reveals a consistent increase in managerialization across diverse sources, including newspapers, films, fiction, congressional speeches, and judicial decisions. We identify the 1980s as a critical turning point in the expansion of managerialization, coinciding with the rise of neoliberalism. We also find that managerialization is particularly prominent in domains such as emotion, body, and social relationships. Additionally, based on analysis of a contemporary interview dataset, we find that privileged social groups—young, educated, high-income white males—tend to adopt managerialization more frequently. Business education is also associated with a higher likelihood of individuals engaging in managerialization discourse. Our study provides empirical evidence of how economic institutions profoundly influence cultural discourse.
