Making Sense of Management

Introduction PART ONE: INTRODUCING CRITICAL THEORY TO MANAGEMENTManagement in Critical PerspectiveCritical Thinking Forms of Knowledge and the Limits of CritiquePART TWO: MANAGEMENT SPECIALISMS IN A CRITICAL PERSPECTIVECritical Conceptualizations of ManagementCritically Assessing Management Specialisms I Organization Theory, HRM and LeadershipCritically Assessing Management Specialisms II Marketing and Strategic ManagementCritically Assessing Management Specialisms III Accounting, Information Systems and Operational ResearchPART THREE: RECASTING CRITICAL THEORY AND MANAGEMENT Recasting Emancipation in Management and Organization StudiesCritical Theory and Management PracticeAppendix: Brief History of the Frankfurt School

Mats Alvesson holds a chair in the Business Administration department at Lund University in Sweden and is also part-time professor at University of Queensland Business School. He has done extensive research and published widely in the areas of qualitative and reflexive methodology, critical theory, organizational culture, knowledge work, identity in organizations, gender, organizational change, management consultancy etc. He has published 20 books with leading publishers and hundreds of articles, many of which are widely cited and used on higher levels in university education.

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

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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

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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 theOperational 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