Discourse and Organization

Cliff Oswick is Professor of Organization Theory at The Business School (formerly known as Cass), City, University of London (and previously served as Deputy Dean between 2011 and 2016). Before joining Cass, he spent 4 years at Queen Mary, University of London as Dean of the Faculty of Law & Social Sciences. His research interests focus on the study of organizing processes and non-traditional approaches to organizational change. He has published over 150 academic articles and contributions to edited volumes. He is an Associate Editor for Journal of Change Management, a member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, an Associate Editor for Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, an elected member of the National Training Laboratory, former chair of the board of trustees for the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations (2014-2020), and previously served as chair of the Organization Development and Change Division of the Academy of Management (2015-2020). Cliff has also undertaken a variety of executive education and consultancy assignments for private and public sector organizations.

Introduction - David Grant, Tom Keenoy and Cliff Oswick Organizational Discourse: Of Diversity, Dichotomy and Multi-Disciplinarity PART ONE: TALK AND ACTION A Discourse on Discourse - Robert J Marshak Redeeming the Meaning of Talk Workplace Conversations - Jill Woodilla The Text of Organizing Emotional Discourse in Organizations - Iain L Mangham Talk and Action - Cynthia Hardy, Thomas B Lawrence and Nelson Phillips Conversations and Narrative in Interorganizational Collaboration PART TWO: STORIES AND SENSE-MAKING Same Old Story or Changing Stories? Folkloric, Modern and Postmodern Mutations - Yiannis Gabriel As God Created the Earth... A Saga That Makes Sense? - Miriam Salzer-M[um]orling The Struggle with Sense - Anne Wallemacq and David Sims PART THREE: DISCOURSE AND SOCIAL THEORY Linearity, Control and Death - Gibson Burrell An Organization Is a Conversation - Gerrit Broekstra Metaphor, Language and Meaning - Didier Cazal and Dawn Inns Organizational Analysis as Discourse Analysis - Mike Reed A Critique PART FOUR: A CONCLUDING DISCOURSE Discourse, Organizations and Paradox - Richard Dunford and Ian Palmer

`The book represents a gold mine of references on the subject and should appeal to those academics organizing a research methods course for postgraduate students of business and management. An interesting and at times complex book, which contains a lot of intellectually stimulating material and deserves a place in every library' - British Academy of Management News