The concepts of social sciences, social action and organizations as texts, are no longer unfamiliar ones. The use of language in social analysis has made researchers acutely aware of the importance of language use, not only to contain and express experience but also to create second order accounts of these experiences. This way of using language to shape our knowledge and guide social action, it is urged, makes social action and organization a 'text'. Text/Work is an innovative exploration of our understanding of the textual nature of organizational life, and considers the consequences of textual nature for organization studies. How can organizations be profitably written into textual forms? This is a bold investigation into a challenging and exciting area of study.

Drawing on both analytical and continental traditions, this thought-provoking book takes a balanced look at the contributions philosophy can make to improving our understanding of what it means to organize.

The essays consider three areas: representing organization, knowing organization, and the becoming of organization. With originality and flair, the contributors make a powerful case for the need for a new philosophy of management and organization.

The concepts of social sciences, social action and organizations as texts, are no longer unfamiliar ones. The use of language in social analysis has made researchers acutely aware of the importance of language use, not only to contain and express experience but also to create second order accounts of these experiences. This way of using language to shape our knowledge and guide social action, it is urged, makes social action and organization a 'text'.
Text/Work is an innovative exploration of our understanding of the textual nature of organizational life, and considers the consequences of textual nature for organization studies. How can organizations be profitably written into textual forms? This is a bold investigation into a challenging and exciting area of study.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203222474

Is sex rife in your workplace? Probably more so than you think, according to this fascinating and controversial new book, Sex Work and Sex Work. This book argues not only that sexuality pervades every aspect of organizations, but also that organization pervades every aspect of our sexuality. This two-way conceptualization lends the book a two-part structure, covering firstly the ways in which organizational behaviour is shaped through issues such as
* male managers' experience of violence
* organizational constructions of sexual harassment
* professionals who work with sex offenders
* the organized practice of sado-masochism.
The second part of the book examines how sex is organized for commercial purposes, and considers sex work as an industry which can be analysed as any other, with important insights for normal organizing. This book is not afraid to explore key issues like the 'dark side' of sex, or prostitution as a complex and varied industry.

Sex, Work and Sex Work argues not only that sexuality pervades every aspect of organizations, but also that organization pervades every aspect of our sexuality.

Drawing on both analytical and continental traditions, this thought-provoking book takes a balanced look at the contributions philosophy can make to improving our understanding of what it means to organize.

The essays consider three areas: representing organization, knowing organization, and the becoming of organization. With originality and flair, the contributors make a powerful case for the need for a new philosophy of management and organization.

Why do we work? Management practitioners and scholars have attempted to answer this question for more than a century, although 'new' responses often turn out be more of the same, recycled through new metaphors or methods. Indeed the 'usual suspects' of Maslow, Herzberg and Vroom continue to underpin managerial interventions like BPR and empowerment, and are still taught on business courses around the world. But 'the motivated' in this world view are deficient and needy, passively waiting for external stimulation or greedy calculators of behavioural outcomes. This is not just old-fashioned: it doesn't match reality. Motivation theory needs to change. This book rises to that challenge.The Passion of Organizing enriches motivation theory by showing how to rethink it in three moves. First, it considers the 'dark side' of motivation, including the roles of addiction, obsession, sex and death. Second, it revisits the suppressed roots of motivation in offering an alternative understanding of desire. Third, it embraces the full complexity of work experience beyond financial reward and instrumentality, from generosity, joy and laughter through anxiety, oppression and tedium to pain, violence and horror, to encompass the many possible meanings of passion at work. Seventeen authors from three continents bring powerful arguments to bear on topics as diverse as pizzas, football management and blowjobs. Their ideas are an exciting and a thought-provoking resource for anyone interested in understanding motivation in organizational contexts.