This paper presents preliminary findings from research being carried out into how community nurses in three first-wave community trusts are responding to changes stemming from recent legislation. A Measure of Job Satisfaction was devised for the study for administration to the entire nursing workforce in the participating trusts and semi-structured interviews were carried out with managers at all levels in each of the trusts. This paper concentrates on the textual data arising from the study dealing with how nurses understood the values of managers and how managers viewed nurses' values. Nurses tended to express their beliefs about managers as a series of us-them oppositions while the comments of managers can be seen within a rational/irrational dualism. Some possible theoretical frameworks in which these texts can be further explored are briefly discussed, including Foucault's power/knowledge concept and the literature of 'colonization'.