The Work of Communication: Constituting Materiality, Agency, and Organization in Contemporary Capitalism revolves around a two-part question: "What have work and organization become under contemporary capitalism--and how should organization studies approach them?" Changes in the texture of capitalism, heralded by social and organizational theorists alike, increasingly focus attention on communication as both vital to the conduct of work and as imperative to organizational performance. Yet most accounts of communication in organization studies fail to understand an alternate sense of the...

Dance and Organisation is the first comprehensive work to integrate dance theory and methods into the study of management, which have developed an interest in the arts and the humanities. Dance represents dynamics and change and puts the moving body at the centre, which has been ignored and oppressed by traditional management theory. Being a leader however also means to move like one, and critical lessons can be learned from ballerinas and modern dancers. Leadership is a dialogue, as in the work of musicians, conductors and DJs who manage groups without words. Movement in...

The modern food system has become hyper-efficient at producing large quantities of cheap food. Food chains, from farmer to consumer, have become increasingly dominated by supermarket oligopolies in both developing and developed countries. The economic power these supermarkets have derived from globalisation and economies of scale has been relentlessly focussed both upwards and downwards along the food chain, as well as sideways towards agencies of national and local governance. Consumers may enjoy cheaper meals but the food system is neither healthy nor sustainable. Obesity is already high...

While research in organisational studies has become increasingly rich and complex, organisation researchers are constantly challenged by the growing quest for theoretical advancement and innovation. To conduct theoretically rigorous and innovative research, contemporary researchers and students must develop in-depth understanding of the theoretical traditions and future prospects of their discipline. This book provides a collection of cutting-edge research topics in the field of organisation and management and offers advanced research findings that explore the frontiers of the field.

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In the last two decades there has been an explosion of research inspired by Michel Foucault s suggestion of a new concept, governmentality . The distinctive feature of modern governmentality is that across all sorts of fields, rule is predicated upon the active subject as the vehicle through which and by which power is exercised. The appeal of governmentality is that, whether we are considering the workplace, the school or welfare regimes, it opens up new ways of looking at familiar institutions.

Foucault and Managerial Governmentality is about Michel Foucault s concept of...

Critical Management Studies (CMS) is often dated from the publication of an edited volume bearing that name (Alvesson and Willmott, 1992). In the two decades that have followed, CMS has been remarkably successful in establishing itself not just as a term but as a recognizable tradition or approach. The emerging status of CMS as an overall approach has been both encouraged and marked by a growing range of handbooks, readers and textbooks. Yet the literature is dominated by writings from the UK and Scandinavia in particular, and the tendency is to treat this literature as constituting CMS....

Management and the Sustainability Paradox is about how humans became disconnected from their ecological environment throughout evolutionary history. Begining with the premise that people have competing innate, natural drives linked to survival. Survival can be thought of in the context of long-term genetic propagation of a species, but at the same time, it involves overcoming of immediate adversities. Due to a diverse set of survival challenges facing our ancestors, natural selection often favored short-term solutions, which by consequence, muted the motivations associated with...

In the current crisis context, capitalism is questioned by its detractors or defended by its partisans. The concept of Socially Responsible Capitalism (SRC) is based on the entrepreneurial spirit. It encourages exemplary behaviors, such as effective, efficient and ethical behaviors, by stimulating social responsibility of companies and organizations. This is combined with the development of economic empowerment and legitimate efforts of each citizen-actor.

Socially Responsible Capitalism and Management does not confuse financial capitalism and entrepreneurial...

The manifestation of the colonial nation state as a legal-bureaucratic-police structure - an exploitation tool - undermined customary modes of governance in colonies. When post World War II independence of colonies transferred ownership of State-structure to the colonized elite, electoral and civil society politics battle for capture of this post-colonial State structure. Meanwhile, the State is also forced to build its legitimacy in the face of customary governance practices seeking rehabilitation and de-colonisation in the midst of civil wars and strife. This -state-building social...