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This book views management as a complex set of social and symbolic processes often characterized by considerable ambiguity and paradox. In particular, it develops the body of work concerned with building experienced-based, grounded description and understanding of the processes of management and managing.The contributors explore: the dynamics, subtleties and complexities of managerial life; its informal as well as formalized features and practices; and the significance of the cultural and symbolic in organizations. There is a concern with meanings and the relationships between managerial talk, thought and action. The contributors also draw on both established social anthropological concepts - such as culture, myth, ritual,
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Understandina b y Stephen Linstead b. Robert Grafton Small *N o and Paul Jeffcutt UNDERSTANDING MANAGEMENT UNDERSTANDING MANAGEMENT edited by Stephen Linstead, Robert Grafton Small and Paul Jeffcutt Thomas j. Bata TREi-i, , i i ib rary y rARIO SAGE Publications London • Thousand Oaks • New Delhi U 5 138 Editorial selection and matter, and Introduction © Stephen Linstead, Robert Grafton Small and Paul Jeffcutt, 1996 Stephen Linstead 1996 Chapter 1 Dan Gowler and Karen Legge 1996 Chapter 2 David Golding 1996 Chapters 3 and 5 Omar Aktouf 1996 Chapter 4 Chapter 6 Michael L. Rosen and Thomas P, Mullen 1996 © Steven P. Feldman 1996 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 © Stephen Lloyd Smith and Barry Wilkinson 1996 Chapter 9 © Robert Grafton Small 1996 Chapter 10 © Barbara Czarniawska-Joerges 1996 Chapter 11 © Paul Jeffcutt 1996 Chapter 12 © Hugo Letiche 1996 First published 1996 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without permission in writing from the Publishers. SAGE Publications Ltd 6 Bonhill Street London EC2A 4PU SAGE Publications Inc 2455 Teller Road Thousand Oaks, California 91320 SAGE Publications India Pvt Ltd 32, M-Block Market Greater Kailash -1 New Delhi 110 048 British Library Cataloguing in Publication data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 0 8039 8912-1 ISBN 0 8039 8913-X (pbk) Library of Congress catalog card number 95-072171 Typeset by Type Study, Scarborough, North Yorkshire Printed in Great Britain by The Cromwell Press Ltd, Broughton Gifford, Melksham, Wiltshire 1 Qs To the memory of Dan Gowler (1931-1992); and Keith Turner (1949-1993), an indefatigable ally, innovative agitator, inimitable critic, irrepressible spirit, and irreplaceable friend. - Contents Acknowledgements ix Contributors x Editors’ Introduction 1 Part 1: Making the Meaning of Management 1 Understanding Management: Culture, Critique and Change 11 Stephen Linstead 2 The Meaning of Management and the Management of Meaning 34 Dan Gowler and Karen Legge 3 Producing Clarity - Depoliticizing Control 51 David Golding Part 2: Defamiliarizing Management Practice 4 Competence, Symbolic Activity and Promotability 66 Omar Aktouf 5 Management Rituals: Maintaining Simplicity in the Chain of Command 78 David Golding 6 There to Here and No Way Back: the Late Life of a Cocaine Dealer 94 Michael L. Rosen and Thomas P. Mullen Part 3: Rethinking Symbolic Management 7 Management in Context: Culture and Organizational Change 113 Steven P. Feldman 8 ‘We are our own Policemen!’- Organizing without Conflict 130 Stephen Lloyd Smit