Making Sense of Management: A Critical Introduction - Hardcover

Alvesson, Mats; Willmott, Hugh

9781849200851: Making Sense of Management: A Critical Introduction

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1849200858 ISBN 13: 9781849200851

Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd, 2012

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The first edition of Making Sense of Management set out to provide a fresh perspective on management that was both broad and critical, exploring how the disruptive and constructive potential of critical theory can be realized in organizations. Along the way, it has proven to be a landmark contribution to critical management studies. As well as setting the agenda for current research, this revised edition has been written to appeal to a broader readership and open up critical theory for the general management student. New sections on HRM, brands, identity, ethics and leadership have been fully developed alongside the rest of the text to reflect the current state of play in critical management studies.

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Review

Sophisticated, insightful, incisive and yet accessible, Making Sense of Management does exactly that: cuts through the claims and assumptions of mainstream understandings of management. Written by the pioneers of 'critical management studies', this new and substantially revised edition is indispensible reading for all at a time when both the power and the failure of conventional approaches to management are all too evident
Christopher Grey
Professor of Organizational Behaviour, University of Warwick

What is management? Is it an attempt to organize the world efficiently, or the domination of the many by the few? In this imaginative and well written text, Alvesson and Willmott show how we must understand the politics of management if we are to be able to think past the various crises that currently face us
Martin Parker
Professor of Organization Studies, Warwick Business School and Editor-in-Chief of 'Organization'

The second and greatly revised edition of this text arrives in a world deeply troubled by 'business as usual', a world in which many people feel extraordinary powers and privileges have been abused by very ordinary managers recklessly running major banks, financial institutions, government organizations and enterprises generally. In understanding the underlying reasons why protests such as 'Occupy Wall Street' are happening across the world, and are the manifestation of a deep malaise, this book is highly recommended
Stewart Clegg
Research Professor and Director of the Centre for Management and Organization Studies, University of Technology, Sydney

This is a critically important book for anyone interested in management theory. Alvesson and Willmott bring a discerning voice of clarity to the cacophony of contemporary management texts by placing management theory in its proper ethical, social and historical context. The authors challenge our understanding of business organizations and management practices by asking fundamental questions about the role of business in modern society
Roy Suddaby
Eric Geddes Professor of Business, Alberta School of Business, Canada

This second edition cannot be more timely. It offers students a concise, in-depth critical understanding of the urgent need to transform both theory and management practice in the 21st century
Stella M Nkomo
University of Pretoria, South Africa

As a business owner I was particularly attracted by the real life examples, which were included, although, as a PhD student I was more interested in the academic references and theories. However the ideas for developing a more critical approach generally are likely to be useful to me in both spheres of my life. While this book seems primarily to be for Critical Management Studies researchers and students, anyone with an interest in critical perspectives of management could benefit from reading it. (Heather Short 2013-09-30)

About the Author

Mats Alvesson holds a chair in the Business Administration department at Lund University in Sweden and is also part-time professor at University of Queensland Business School. He has done extensive research and published widely in the areas of qualitative and reflexive methodology, critical theory, organizational culture, knowledge work, identity in organizations, gender, organizational change, management consultancy etc. He has published 20 books with leading publishers and hundreds of articles, many of which are widely cited and used on higher levels in university education.

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