Making Sense of Management: A Critical Introduction
The first edition of Making Sense of Management set out to provide a fresh perspective on management that was both broad and critical, exploring how the disruptive and constructive potential of critical theory can be realized in organizations. Along the way, it has proven to be a landmark contribution to critical management studies. As well as setting the agenda for current research, this revised edition has been written to appeal to a broader readership and open up critical theory for the general management student.
New sections on HRM, brands, identity, ethics and leadership have been fully developed alongside the rest of the text to reflect the current state of play in critical management studies.
The second edition of Making Sense of Management will be of interest to students and researchers in critical management studies and students on general management courses with a critical perspective.
While this book brings together for the first time in a single text a wide range of critical literature on the subject of management, it is also important to identify it as a welcome successor to an earlier (1992) collection of papers edited by the authors' - The British Accounting Review
`The building of a critical dialogue which addresses the "double challenges" of relevance, both interdisciplinary and cross-contextual, is crucial to the ongoing development of management. Such a process of dialogue-building is unlikely to be tidy, but like this book it needs to be both provocative and stimulating. Hence like the arena it is engaging with, this book is both interdisciplinary and conceptually hybrid. In terms of style and audience it sl also hybrid, ebing btoh introductory and developmental.... Yet such hybridity is entirely appropriate, for Alvesson and Willmott have been admirably engaged in an opening up of important and complex territory to critical discussion, and in these respects as their emphasis shifted from the conventions of Critical Theory the more interesting and significant the book became. As a whole, this book makes an important contribution to the development of a theory and practice of Critical Management that is relevant to contemporary concern, as well as stimulating further participation in the extension of this critical dialogue' - Management Learning
`The book scores considerable points for its rather generous references to women's issues, its extensive bibliography, the concentrated descripton of CT's development and its discussion of critical issues which should make a contribution to the indicated target audience's discourse' - Journal of the Operational Research Society
'A critical-academic-analysis of received wisdom, for serious students of the subject' -Long Range Planning
`Here we have another useful looking runner from the Alvesson/Willmott stable which builds upon and deepens their earlier, edited, Critical Management Studies (Alvesson and Willmott 1992)....As usual with these authors, there is an excellent reference list and a comprehensive index' - Organization Studies
Mats Alvesson is a Visiting Lecterer at Exeter University, He holds a chair in the Business Administration department at Lund University in Sweden. He has published a large selection of journals and has contributed too many handbooks as well. He is also on the Board for the Academy of Management Review, Journal of Management Studies, and Strategic Organizations, Management Communication Quarterly and Organizational Research Methods and a co-editor of Organization. He is currently leading a large scale europe wide study on how specialists secure and enhance their managerial identity.
Mats Alvesson is on the editorial board for The Academy Academy of Management Review, Journal of Management Studies, Strategic Organinzation, Management Communication Quarterly and Organizational Research Methods and a co-editor of Organization.