This work contains case studies in organizational communication suitable for the teaching of organizational behaviour, industrial psychology, communication, or organizational sociology.
This irreverent but serious work systematically challenges the underlying assumptions and values of contemporary linear organization theory. The author looks at the pain, violence, death, failure and chaos hidden underneath, at the prison-like surveillance systems, the rotting structure - the organizational hell disregarded by conventional organization theory and practice. Disclaiming the voices of positivist science, the author presents a metaphor for the rejection of linearity, the reassertion of organizational creativity, and the return of actual human beings into the equations of organization theory and practice.
The multiple-cultures perspective advocated in this book suggests that culture in organizational settings is more complex, pluralistic, diverse and contradictory than previously acknowledged. Contributors address culture at various levels including national, industrial and organizational. Issues covered include: implicit managerial understandings ......
What is a committed employee? Are such employees better or worse off than uncommitted employees? What are the organizational advantages and disadvantages of having a committed workforce? This book overviews academic and popular perspectives on commitment in employees. It examines the multiple faces of commitment and the links that have been ......
Some of the more troublesome and disturbing aspects of workplace diversity are illuminated in this volume - individual and institutional resistance, the effectiveness of diversity change efforts and the less visible ways in which exclusion and discrimination continue to be practised in the workplace. To help the reader understand some of these dilemmas, the contributors adopt a number of theoretical frameworks which are striking departures from traditional perspectives on diversity. These include: intergroup relations theory; critical theory; Jungian psychology; feminism; post- colonial theory; cultural history; postmodernism; realism; institutional theory; and class analysis. In addition, they examine different organizational situations in which complex predicaments of diversity surface - many of which cross race, gender, ethnic and other socially constructed boundaries.
In The Work-Family Challenge contributors from the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States explore the possibilities of challenging traditional employment structures to take account of contemporary work and family realities. They take a critical look at the notion of `family-friendly' employment, and explore ways in which the rapidly changing needs of both organizations and the workforce can be met. The volume argues that real progress requires moving the focus from specific policies and practices towards more systemic organizational change. It examines the contexts and opportunities - global, international, national, sociopolitical, legal and economic - for this change. The book concludes that positive solutions are attainable but will require a rethinking of employment, with constructive partnerships at many different levels, and with work and family as a core strategic business issue.
Told through the fresh, sharp eyes of new organizational recruits, these sometimes comic, often traumatic, but always vivid and revealing accounts of organizations have much to say to learners and old hands alike. Grouped in sections on `images', `winning and losing' and `survival and injuries', the narratives encompass a wide gamut of themes and issue. These include: power and politics in organizations; organizational cultures and change; gender and discrimination; appearances and realities; leaders and followers; and emotion, motivation and stress. The authors also focus on the coldly competitive features of businesses where processes such as restructuring, rationalization and downsizing are increasingly commonplace. Throughout, commentaries by Stephen Fineman and Yiannis Gabriel highlight particular points of analysis and learning, while each chapter concludes with questions for discussion and a selected bibliography enabling further reading.
A hot topic in organizational science in recent years has been how organizational members conceptualize and make sense of their organizational worlds. The growing interest in cognition has coincided, not accidentally, with the increasing legitimacy of a constructionist point of view among organizational scholars. Bringing together the scholars ......
Bringing together cognition and the construc tionist point of view, this text applies the insights of mod ern cognitive science to problems of sensemaking and decisio n making in organisations. '
