The devil in high heels : drugs, symbolism and Kate Moss

This paper contributes to critical voices on the issue of organisational responses to drugs and employee drug use. It does so by exploring some of the symbolism residing at the heart of organisations’ relations with drugs and drug taking. Our focus is recent media coverage of, and organisational responses to, the UK tabloid media’s exposé of fashion supermodel Kate Moss’s cocaine use. We use this case to explore symbolic relationships between drugs, sex and femininity, and organisation. Through highlighting these symbolic connections we question further the rationality of organisational responses to the ‘spectre’ of drugs and the issue of employee drug use. We conclude by suggesting that workforce drug testing regimes might be fruitfully seen as mechanisms for scapegoating and sacrifice in order to protect the organizational moral order.