Employee and manager rebellions occur more often than you might think. This book argues how important it is to take these protests seriously. The authors demonstrate that when middle managers rebel, they aren't just letting off steam, and that their acts of creative protest can even produce benefits for their companies. Rebellion can pay off!

Organizations are central actors of modern society. No understanding of our world is complete without a theory of how they work. This insight is grounded in the foundational texts of classical social theory, and it remains as true as ever today. Be they multinational corporations or start-up firms, established political parties or insurgent social movements, successful organizations must engage in power-projects. Such is the overarching argument of this volume, a collection of papers by many of the world's leading social scientists and organizational scholars. Many contributions analyze empirical data to generate cutting-edge arguments about the actual working of organizations, institutions, and markets. Other papers represent original theoretical arguments that propose new ways to see and study power. Topics addressed include the nature of post-bureaucratic (polyarchic) organizations, strategic action within fields, identity and contentious politics, and emergent forms of resistance. Collectively, the papers that comprise this volume set a fresh agenda for the study of power in and across organizations and institutions.

Employee and manager rebellions occur more often than you might think. This book argues how important it is to take these protests seriously. The authors demonstrate that when middle managers rebel, they aren't just letting off steam, and that their acts of creative protest can even produce benefits for their companies. Rebellion can pay off!

Chosen by Library Journal as one of the best reference texts of 2016. Occupy. Indignados. The Tea Party. The Arab Spring. Anonymous. These and other terms have become part of an emerging lexicon in recent years, signalling an important development that has gripped many parts of the world: millions of people are increasingly involved, whether directly or indirectly, in movements of resistance and protestation. However, resistance and its conceptual "companions", protest, contestation, opposition, disobedience and mobilization, all seem to be still mostly seen in public and private discourses as illegitimate and problematic forms of action. The time is, therefore, ripe to delve into the concerns, themes and legitimacy. The SAGE Handbook of Resistance offers theoretical essays enabling readers to forge their own perspectives of what "is" resistance and emphasizes the empirical and experiential dimension of resistance - making strong choices in terms of how contemporary topics related to resistance help to rethink our societies as "protest societies". The coverage is divided into six key sub-sections: Foundations Sites of Resistance Technologies of Resistance Languages of Resistance Geographies of Resistance Consequences of Resistance

"A marvelous addition to the literature on both organizations and power. It is well-grounded in the research on these topics and especially the wide-range of relevant theorizing... The book is terrific at bringing together theory, research and the world of organizations." - George Ritzer, Distinguished University Professor, University of Maryland "This book tirelessly illuminates the nooks and crannies of the power literature...taking readers on an audacious tour of power's multiple conceptualizations and expressions." - Hugh Willmott, Diageo Professor of Management Studies, University of Cambridge "Clegg and his associates expose the power dynamics that lie at the heart of all political and organizational arenas, and in so doing, they shed light on the underbelly along with the creative potentialities in organizational life." -Joyce Rothschild, Professor of Sociology, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University "Strange but true - most studies of organizational hierarchies downplay the issue of power or uncritically assume more is better, while ignoring its pernicious effects. Stewart Clegg, David Courpasson and Nelson Phillips set the record straight." - Joanne Martin, Merrill Professor of Organizational Behavior and, by courtesy, Sociology Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Stanford In this tour de force, Stewart Clegg, David Courpasson and Nelson Phillips provide a comprehensive account of power and organizations, unlocking power as the central relation of modern organizations and society. The authors present an excellent synthesis of organization, social and political theory to offer an overview of power and organizations that is historically informed, addresses current issues and is comprehensive in scope. Power and Organizations reviews the evolution of theories on power and organization, presenting not only the theorists who identify power as positive, but also dealing with the negativity of power and the real horror of which organizations are capable, which has thus far been underplayed in organization theory. At the core of organizational power projects are organizational elites, whose politics and projects are examined extensively in the book. The book concludes by examining the implications for organizations and their elites of the trends, tendencies, and theories considered in the course of the book. This book is required reading for graduate students and researchers in areas such as organizational, social and political theory.