Essential reading for all those concerned with contemporary theorizing of organization, this important and thought-provoking volume explores the implications of postmodernist/poststructuralist thinking for organizations and organizational analysis. The book introduces the concepts underpinning a postmodern organizational analysis, contrasting modern and postmodern forms of explanation and addressing the distinctions between postmodernity and postmodernism. Succeeding chapters then examine and assess the interplay of major postmodernist themes - such as deconstruction, desire, difference, pluralism and relativism - with key topics of organizational analysis and research. The final section is one of critique, as its authors variously argue that postmodernism fails adequately to address the realities of power, control and change in a globalizing world.
It has been claimed that organization theory is in a state of crisis. This book traces the history of the orthodox systems theory paradigm in organization studies from its foundations to its recent deconstruction by postmodernists. The analysis offers general support for the "sociology-in-crisis" thesis, but takes issue with one of its main propositions, that paradigms are incommensurable. It is argued that paradigms are porous rather than hermetic phenomena, a fact that has profound implications for the theory building process.
John Mingers' new volume, Self-Producing Systems: Implications and Ap plications of Autopoiesis, is a much-needed reference on autopoiesis, a subject penetrating many disciplines today. I can genuinely say that I enjoyed reading the book as it took me stage by stage through a clear and easy-to-grasp understanding of the concepts and ideas of auto poiesis and then, as the book's title suggests, on through their applica tions. I found the summary in Chapter 12 particularly useful, helping to crystalize the main points of each chapter. The book conveyed enthusi asm for the subject and stimulated my interest in it. At times the book is demanding, but only because of the breadth of the subject matter, the terms and concepts associated with its parts, and the challenge of keep ing hold of all this in the mind at once. This is an exceptional text. ROBERT L. FLOOD Hull, UK Preface In recent years Maturana's and Varela's concept of autopoiesis, origi nally a biological concept, has made a remarkable impact not just on a single area, but across widely differing disciplines such as sociology, policy science, psychotherapy, cognitive science, and law. Put very briefly, the term autopoiesis connotes the idea that certain types of sys tems exist in a particular manner-they are self-producing systems. In their operations they continuously produce their own constituents, their own components, which then participate in these same production pro cesses.
The focus of this book is care and compassion within the context of organization and management studies. The book aims to understand how members of an English hospice identify or fail to identify with an organization where issues of life and death take centre stage and explores problems it faces regarding its representation in society.
The book presents a series of epistemological, conceptual and methodological explorations appropriate to the development of critical organizational analysis.
Who are NHS middle managers? What do they do, and why and how do they do it’? This book explores the daily realities of working life for middle managers in the UK’s National Health Service during a time of radical change and disruption to the entire edifice of publicly-funded healthcare. It is an empirical critique of the movement towards a healthcare model based around HMO-type providers such as Kaiser Permanente and United Health. Although this model is well-known internationally, many believe it to be financially and ethically questionable, and often far from 'best practice' when it comes to patient care. Drawing on immersive ethnographic research based on four case studies – an Acute Hospital Trust, an Ambulance Trust, a Mental Health Trust, and a Primary Care Trust – this book provides an in-depth critical appraisal of the everyday experiences of a range of managers working in the NHS. It describes exactly what NHS managers do and explains how their roles are changing and the types of challenges they face. The analysis explains how many NHS junior and middle managers are themselves clinicians to some extent, with hybrid roles as simultaneously nurse and manager, midwife and manager, or paramedic and manager. While commonly working in ‘back office’ functions, NHS middle managers are also just as likely to be working very close to or actually on the front lines of patient care. Despite the problems they regularly face from organizational restructuring, cost control and demands for accountability, the authors demonstrate that NHS managers – in their various guises – play critical, yet undervalued, institutional roles. Depicting the darker sides of organizational change, this text is a sociological exploration of the daily struggle for work dignity of a complex, widely denigrated, and largely misunderstood group of public servants trying to do their best under extremely trying circumstances. It is essential reading for academics, students, and practitioners interested in health management and policy, organisational change, public sector management, and the NHS more broadly.
At last there is a lucid, well-written OB book, which covers key issues required in OB teaching, but which has a mind of its own. Students and faculty will recognize this is more than standard fare." - Bill Cooke, Manchester Business School
Based on extensive original research, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the current status of state enterprise reform in China. Chinese State Enterprise Reform considers the relationship between public ownership and public enterprises, and the historical evolution of China's economic reform programme since 1978, including assessments of the Contrast Responsiblity System, which operated from the early 1980s to the early 1990s, and the Group Company Experiments, which began in the 1990s. It discusses the relations between workers, managers, and the state in post-Dengist China, the implications of the reform programme for human resources management in state enterprises, the nature of labour representation, and organization under tate capitalism and the problems of surplus labour and reemployment.
Reprint of the original, first published in 1874. The publishing house Anatiposi publishes historical books as reprints. Due to their age, these books may have missing pages or inferior quality. Our aim is to preserve these books and make them available to the public so that they do not get lost.
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