Understanding Management
1st Edition
Published on 30. January 1996
Book
Hardback
240 pages
978-0-8039-8913-9 (ISBN)
Description
This book views management as a complex set of social and symbolic processes often characterized by considerable ambiguity and paradox. In particular, it develops the body of work concerned with building experienced-based, grounded description and understanding of the processes of management and managing.
The contributors explore: the dynamics, subtleties and complexities of managerial life; its informal as well as formalized features and practices; and the significance of the cultural and symbolic in organizations. There is a concern with meanings and the relationships between managerial talk, thought and action. The contributors also draw on both established social anthropological concepts - such as culture, myth, ritual, totem and taboo - for understanding the nature of managing, and concepts deriving from newer postmodernist themes and developments. Throughout, the book emphasizes the importance of critical reflection for learning and change in management and organization.
The contributors explore: the dynamics, subtleties and complexities of managerial life; its informal as well as formalized features and practices; and the significance of the cultural and symbolic in organizations. There is a concern with meanings and the relationships between managerial talk, thought and action. The contributors also draw on both established social anthropological concepts - such as culture, myth, ritual, totem and taboo - for understanding the nature of managing, and concepts deriving from newer postmodernist themes and developments. Throughout, the book emphasizes the importance of critical reflection for learning and change in management and organization.
Reviews / Votes
`A most interesting collection of critical current thinking' - Journal of Managerial Psychology'12 articles that review management as a complex set of social and symbolic processes "often characterized by considerable ambiguity and paradox" is Understanding Management' - Long Range Planning
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Thousand Oaks
United States
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 161 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
514 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-8039-8913-9 (9780803989139)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Stephen Andrew Linstead | Robert Grafton-Small | Paul Jeffcutt
Understanding Management
Book
02/1996
1st Edition
SAGE Publications Ltd
€216.90
Article exhausted; check different version
Persons
My background includes undergraduate and Masters degrees in English Literature from the universities of Keele and Leeds , and a further Masters in Organization Development and PhD from what is now Sheffield Hallam University . More recently I was awarded a D.LItt from Durham University . I have held Chairs in Wollongong (NSW), Sunderland . Essex and Durham before moving to York . I also spent 2 years as a Visting Scholar at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Content
PART ONE: MAKING THE MEANING OF MANAGEMENT
Understanding Management - Stephen Linstead
Culture, Critique and Change
The Meaning of Management and the Management of Meaning - Dan Gowler and Karen Legge
Producing Clarity - Depoliticizing Control - David Golding
PART TWO: DEFAMILIARIZING MANAGEMENT PRACTICE
Competence, Symbolic Activity and Promotability - Omar Aktouf
Management Rituals - David Golding
Maintaining Simplicity in the Chain of Command
There to Here and No Way Back - Michael L Rosen and Thomas P Mullen
The Late Life of a Cocaine Dealer
PART THREE: RETHINKING SYMBOLIC MANAGEMENT
Management in Context - Steven P Feldman
Culture and Organizational Change
`We Are Our Own Policemen!' - Stephen Lloyd Smith and Barry Wilkinson
Organizing without Conflict
PART FOUR: CONSUMING AND CONSTRUCTING IDENTITY
Marketing, or the Anthropology of Consumption - Robert Grafton Small
Autobiographical Acts and Organizational Identities - Barbara Czarniawska-Joerges
PART FIVE: CHANGING IDENTITIES
Between Managers and the Managed - Paul Jeffcutt
The Processes of Organizational Transition
Postmodernism Goes Practical - Hugo Letiche
Understanding Management - Stephen Linstead
Culture, Critique and Change
The Meaning of Management and the Management of Meaning - Dan Gowler and Karen Legge
Producing Clarity - Depoliticizing Control - David Golding
PART TWO: DEFAMILIARIZING MANAGEMENT PRACTICE
Competence, Symbolic Activity and Promotability - Omar Aktouf
Management Rituals - David Golding
Maintaining Simplicity in the Chain of Command
There to Here and No Way Back - Michael L Rosen and Thomas P Mullen
The Late Life of a Cocaine Dealer
PART THREE: RETHINKING SYMBOLIC MANAGEMENT
Management in Context - Steven P Feldman
Culture and Organizational Change
`We Are Our Own Policemen!' - Stephen Lloyd Smith and Barry Wilkinson
Organizing without Conflict
PART FOUR: CONSUMING AND CONSTRUCTING IDENTITY
Marketing, or the Anthropology of Consumption - Robert Grafton Small
Autobiographical Acts and Organizational Identities - Barbara Czarniawska-Joerges
PART FIVE: CHANGING IDENTITIES
Between Managers and the Managed - Paul Jeffcutt
The Processes of Organizational Transition
Postmodernism Goes Practical - Hugo Letiche