Making Sense of Management 2/e

Mats Alvesson is Professor of Organization Studies at the University of Bath, and also affiliated with Lund University, Stockholm School of Economics and Bayes Business School, City, University of London.

Introduction PART ONE: INTRODUCING CRITICAL THEORY TO MANAGEMENT Management in Critical Perspective Critical Thinking Forms of Knowledge and the Limits of Critique PART TWO: MANAGEMENT SPECIALISMS IN A CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE Critical Conceptualizations of Management Critically Assessing Management Specialisms I Organization Theory, HRM and Leadership Critically Assessing Management Specialisms II Marketing and Strategic Management Critically Assessing Management Specialisms III Accounting, Information Systems and Operational Research PART THREE: RECASTING CRITICAL THEORY AND MANAGEMENT Recasting Emancipation in Management and Organization Studies Critical Theory and Management Practice Appendix: Brief History of the Frankfurt School

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