This insightful Elgar Introduction comprises the first effort to provide a succinct overview of the field of organizational paradox theory, exploring contradictions and tensions in organizational settings. By conceptually mapping the field, it offers guidance through the literature on paradox, making space for new interpretations and applications of the concept. Opening with a critical analysis of research to date, the authors explore ideas related to dialectics and ambidexterity in organizations, as well as pragmatic approaches to organizational paradox. Chapters propose new ways to analyse responses to paradox, bringing together influential contributions that consider the nestedness of paradox, the relation between power and paradox, and paradoxes of positive organizational scholarships. Providing novel approaches to the discipline, this cutting-edge book is crucial for graduate students and management scholars interested in employing organizational paradox theory as a conceptual framework for their research.

With organizational environments becoming increasingly unstable, uncertain and equivocal, the concept of resilience has become increasingly significant for management studies and practice. Resilience connotes organizational, team and individual capacities to absorb external shocks and to learn from them, while simultaneously preparing for and responding to external jolts. This book pinpoints the essential aspects of managerial and organizational resilience and offers insights that stimulate critical thinking. As the concept of resilience is essentially made up of contrasting forces, the volume presents some innovative synthetic interpretation that allows a deeper comprehension of the phenomenon and provides managers and policy makers with a solid basis for taking their decisions. This book provides an accessible yet rigorous systematization of individual resilience, team resilience and organizational resilience. Rich with real-life concept illustrations and containing practice-oriented tools, reflection questions and exercises, it shows how resilience can be cultivated across levels of organizational aggregation: individuals, teams, organizations and communities. The authors distinguish individual and collective resilience from related constructs and shed light on the boundaries of resilience and its potential implications for management practice. Elgar Introduction to Theories of Organizational Resilience will serve as a key resource for graduate students and advanced undergraduate students as well as academics and practitioners who are interested in deepening their understanding of resilience.

Business Networks and Strategic Alliances in China addresses how knowledge transfer and innovation are interwoven within complex networks and how social capital contributes to the acquisition of crucial resources and business success in multi-type enterprises in China. The book explains how China's remarkable global economic impact in recent years has developed from foreign investment and that the dominant vehicle for economic development has been the International Joint Venture (IJV) between Chinese manufacturers and overseas enterprises. Strict guidelines on FDI mean that foreign firms have been obliged to form relationships with Chinese organizations. The authors illustrate that as a direct result, the quality and nature of the relations, networks, and alliances forged is crucial for the success of Chinese businesses. A sophisticated empirical, theoretical, comparative and historical guide to understanding the nature of business networks in China is provided by this work. As such, it makes a distinct contribution to the furtherance of evidence-based management theory and practice and will strongly appeal to those with an interest in management, international business and Asian studies.

Frameworks of Power is a coherent and comprehensive account of the different frameworks for understanding power that have been advanced by influential thinkers across the social sciences. A true classic in the field, the original edition proved hugely influential and a major point of reference for scholars at all levels concerned with power. Looking back to the classical literature on power, with special emphasis on Machiavelli and Hobbes, the book concentrates on the analysis of power - from both British and American social and political theorists, and from German Critical Theory and French theorists such as Foucault - and develops upon its theory and its application. The second edition includes a completely new chapter, A History of the Present, which offers a timely, engaging and provocative intervention by analysing three contemporary crises - the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia′s invasion of Ukraine and climate change - using the circuits of power framework that was the central concept of the original work.  As well as being an essential textbook for all students in social science disciplines, this wide-ranging and innovative analysis will appeal to scholars in sociology, politics, organization studies and other disciplines.

Covering all the basics in organizational behaviour, as well critically reflecting on the institutions and practices of business life, the sixth edition of Managing and Organizations: An Introduction to Theory and Practice has been updated to include: * Cutting-edge content on diversity and inclusion, design thinking, followership and deglobalization * New and updated 'In Practice' boxes offering real-world examples * Engaging case studies, such as How to start decolonising your business, Power and empathy and How COVID-19 has changed university teaching * New 'Additional Resources' in each chapter This textbook is essential reading for anyone studying organizational behaviour at undergraduate or postgraduate level. A wealth of online resources for both students and lecturers, including a fully revised Instructor's Manual, PowerPoint slides and additional case studies, are available via the companion website. Stewart Clegg is Professor at the University of Stavanger, Norway; University of Sydney and Emeritus Professor at University of Technology Sydney, Australia Tyrone S. Pitsis is Professor of Strategy, Technology & Society at Durham University Business School. Matt Mount is Assistant Professor of Strategy and Innovation at Deakin Business School, Melbourne.

Why do great companies and other organizations fail, sometimes abruptly? Why do admired leaders fall from their organizational pedestals? Why do young and promising managers derail? Why do organizations create and reinforce rules that manifestly damage both them and those that they employ, serve and sustain? Leadership is a much-discussed but ill-defined idea in business and management circles. Analysing and understanding the skills and behaviours exhibited in leadership practice reveal that leaders exhibit paradoxical activities that challenge our understanding of organizations. In this text, the authors identify leadership behaviours that compete towards business equilibrium: selfish versus selfless, distance versus proximity, consistency versus individuality, enforcing professional standards versus flexibility and control versus autonomy. These paradoxical dilemmas require a reflexive and analytical approach to a subject that is tricky to define. The book explores the paradoxes of power and leadership not as a panacea for solving organizational problems but as a lens through which leadership and power are seen as an exercise in dynamic balance. Read this book as an invitation to the paradoxes of power and leadership that frame organizational life today. Be prepared to find surprises - and some counterintuitive arguments. Providing a thought-provoking guide to the traits and skills that will help readers to understand and navigate paradoxical leadership behaviour, this reflexive book will be a useful reading for students and scholars of business, management and psychology globally.

With organizational environments becoming increasingly unstable, uncertain and equivocal, the concept of resilience has become increasingly significant for management studies and practice. Resilience connotes organizational, team and individual capacities to absorb external shocks and to learn from them, while simultaneously preparing for and responding to external jolts. This book pinpoints the essential aspects of managerial and organizational resilience and offers insights that stimulate critical thinking. As the concept of resilience is essentially made up of contrasting forces, the volume presents some innovative synthetic interpretation that allows a deeper comprehension of the phenomenon and provides managers and policy makers with a solid basis for taking their decisions. This book provides an accessible yet rigorous systematization of individual resilience, team resilience and organizational resilience. Rich with real-life concept illustrations and containing practice-oriented tools, reflection questions and exercises, it shows how resilience can be cultivated across levels of organizational aggregation: individuals, teams, organizations and communities. The authors distinguish individual and collective resilience from related constructs and shed light on the boundaries of resilience and its potential implications for management practice. Elgar Introduction to Theories of Organizational Resilience will serve as a key resource for graduate students and advanced undergraduate students as well as academics and practitioners who are interested in deepening their understanding of resilience.

Written by an expert team and praised for its refreshing approach, this essential text offers a critical, holistic understanding of strategy theory and practice. The fourth edition has been fully updated to include: * Coverage of contemporary issues including the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change and digitalization * Topical and engaging case studies such as Disney's Strategy and Covid-19, Netflix Versus Amazon: Dynamic Capabilities for Global Success, and PS5, Xbox and BMW: Chips and Supply Chains * A wealth of new examples of strategy in practice from world-renowned organisations such as Google, Uniqlo, Tesla, IKEA, and Airbnb Suitable for both undergraduate and postgraduate study, Strategy: Theory and Practice encourages readers to engage critically with the internal and external factors that shape strategy in the real world. A selection of tried and tested online resources, including a teaching guide, PowerPoints, an online case study bank and test bank of questions have been developed to support lecturers using the book in their teaching. Stewart Clegg is Professor at the University of Sydney, Emeritus Professor at the University of Technology Sydney, and Visiting Professor at the University of Stavanger, University of Johannesburg, and Nova School of Business and Economics. Christos Pitelis is Head of Department of International Business and Professor of International Business and Sustainable Competitiveness at the University of Leeds, and Life Fellow at Queens' College, University of Cambridge. Jochen Schweitzer is an Associate Professor at the University of Technology Sydney. Andrea Whittle is Professor of Management at Newcastle University Business School.

Why do great companies and other organizations fail, sometimes abruptly? Why do admired leaders fall from their organizational pedestals? Why do young and promising managers derail? Why do organizations create and reinforce rules that manifestly damage both them and those that they employ, serve and sustain? Leadership is a much-discussed but ill-defined idea in business and management circles. Analysing and understanding the skills and behaviours exhibited in leadership practice reveal that leaders exhibit paradoxical activities that challenge our understanding of organizations. In this text, the authors identify leadership behaviours that compete towards business equilibrium: selfish versus selfless, distance versus proximity, consistency versus individuality, enforcing professional standards versus flexibility and control versus autonomy. These paradoxical dilemmas require a reflexive and analytical approach to a subject that is tricky to define. The book explores the paradoxes of power and leadership not as a panacea for solving organizational problems but as a lens through which leadership and power are seen as an exercise in dynamic balance. Read this book as an invitation to the paradoxes of power and leadership that frame organizational life today. Be prepared to find surprises - and some counterintuitive arguments. Providing a thought-provoking guide to the traits and skills that will help readers to understand and navigate paradoxical leadership behaviour, this reflexive book will be a useful reading for students and scholars of business, management and psychology globally.

We are now entering a new phase in the establishment of historical organization studies as a distinctive methodological paradigm within the broad field of organization studies. This book serves both as a landmark in the development of the field and as a key reference tool for researchers and students. For two decades, organization theorists have emphasized the need for more and better research recognizing the importance of the past in shaping the present and future. By historicizing organizational research, the contexts and forces bearing upon organizations will be more fully recognized, and analyses of organizational dynamics improved. But how, precisely, might a traditionally empirically oriented discipline such as history be incorporated into a theoretically oriented discipline such as organization studies? This book evaluates the current state of play, advances it and identifies the possibilities the new emergent field offers for the future. In addition to providing an important work of reference on the subject for researchers, the book can be used to introduce management and organizational history to a student audience at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The book is a valuable source for wider reading, providing rich reference material in tutorials across organizational studies, or as recommended or required reading on courses with a connection to business or management history.

Today there is widespread awareness of the fact that time has been under-investigated in organizational studies. This book addresses the need to bridge the gap between the predominantly "timeless" theories and models that scholars have produced and the daily experiences of employees and managers, in which time is salient and extremely important. These chapters offer a broad range of concepts, models, and methods that are tailored to this purpose. The first part of the book is devoted to the way in which people in organizations manage time, summarizing research findings, presenting novel ideas on a broad range of issues and examining issues such as whether time can be managed, how people are affected by deadlines and how do strategic changes in organizations affect individuals' careers and sense of identity. The second part is about time as embedded in collective behaviours and experiences, and in temporal regimes linked to organizational structures. It discusses ways to study such collective patterns and their relationships to management practices, and addresses topics such as sensemaking of dynamic events, rhythmic patterns and their impact on organizational effectiveness, time in industrial relations, and power and temporal hegemony. A third part with a single concluding chapter looks at possibilities for integrating the various approaches and provides suggestions for future research. This book adopts a pluralistic approach, arguing against timeless conceptions in organizational theory and behaviour and instead emphasising the importance of temporal analysis.

Today there is widespread awareness of the fact that time has been under-investigated in organizational studies. This book addresses the need to bridge the gap between the predominantly "timeless" theories and models that scholars have produced and the daily experiences of employees and managers, in which time is salient and extremely important. These chapters offer a broad range of concepts, models, and methods that are tailored to this purpose.

The first part of the book is devoted to the way in which people in organizations manage time, summarizing research findings, presenting novel ideas on a broad range of issues and examining issues such as whether time can be managed, how people are affected by deadlines and how do strategic changes in organizations affect individuals careers and sense of identity. The second part is about time as embedded in collective behaviours and experiences, and in temporal regimes linked to organizational structures. It discusses ways to study such collective patterns and their relationships to management practices, and addresses topics such as sensemaking of dynamic events, rhythmic patterns and their impact on organizational effectiveness, time in industrial relations, and power and temporal hegemony. A third part with a single concluding chapter looks at possibilities for integrating the various approaches and provides suggestions for future research. This book adopts a pluralistic approach, arguing against timeless conceptions in organizational theory and behaviour and instead emphasising the importance of temporal analysis.

Ethics has become big business but have businesses become ethical? This is a central question for today's managers. Managing ethics is critical in an era characterized by unprecedented corporate power and a myriad of competing ethical traditions. Giving new insights into the understanding of ethics for today's organization practice and managerial behaviour, this timely volume, edited by well-respected industry authorities, provides an overview and critique of ethics as they relate to contemporary challenges and issues (such as globalization, sustainability, consumerism, neo-liberalism, corporate collapses, leadership and corporate regulation). This book, an essential read for postgraduate students of business and ethics, is organized around the core question: What are the ethics of organizing in today's institutional environment and what does this mean for the practice of management and the organization of business? In response to this, the contributors examine ethics as it is deeply embedded in the everyday practice of management. Interdisciplinary contributions from the fields of sociology, philosophy, management, organization studies and public administration provide unique perspectives, while case studies and real-life examples illustrate the challenges and dilemmas faced in practice. Each chapter has a brief overview and editor's introduction which skilfully summarizes key points and draws connections between the chapters.

Ethics has become big business but have businesses become ethical? This is a central question for today's managers. Managing ethics is critical in an era characterized by unprecedented corporate power and a myriad of competing ethical traditions. Giving new insights into the understanding of ethics for today's organization practice and managerial behaviour, this timely volume, edited by well-respected industry authorities, provides an overview and critique of ethics as they relate to contemporary challenges and issues (such as globalization, sustainability, consumerism, neo-liberalism, corporate collapses, leadership and corporate regulation). This book, an essential read for postgraduate students of business and ethics, is organized around the core question: What are the ethics of organizing in today's institutional environment and what does this mean for the practice of management and the organization of business? In response to this, the contributors examine ethics as it is deeply embedded in the everyday practice of management. Interdisciplinary contributions from the fields of sociology, philosophy, management, organization studies and public administration provide unique perspectives, while case studies and real-life examples illustrate the challenges and dilemmas faced in practice. Each chapter has a brief overview and editor's introduction which skilfully summarizes key points and draws connections between the chapters.

We are now entering a new phase in the establishment of historical organization studies as a distinctive methodological paradigm within the broad field of organization studies. This book serves both as a landmark in the development of the field and as a key reference tool for researchers and students. For two decades, organization theorists have emphasized the need for more and better research recognizing the importance of the past in shaping the present and future. By historicizing organizational research, the contexts and forces bearing upon organizations will be more fully recognized, and analyses of organizational dynamics improved. But how, precisely, might a traditionally empirically oriented discipline such as history be incorporated into a theoretically oriented discipline such as organization studies? This book evaluates the current state of play, advances it and identifies the possibilities the new emergent field offers for the future. In addition to providing an important work of reference on the subject for researchers, the book can be used to introduce management and organizational history to a student audience at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The book is a valuable source for wider reading, providing rich reference material in tutorials across organizational studies, or as recommended or required reading on courses with a connection to business or management history.

This book shows that in business, moral questions are not just theoretical; they arise in practice and have to be dealt with in practice. It illustrates that 'ethics as practice' is an important area of study because it focuses on how ethics are enacted and embedded in everyday organizational reality. In contrast to the approaches dominating mainstream literature, the authors of this thought provoking volume focus on the tensions, paradoxes and ambiguities that underpin ethics in practice. Recent corporate scandals such as those involving Enron, Worldcom and Parmalat have brought to the fore a problem which mainstream economics and management studies have long ignored: the fact that neither rules, regulations, nor the laws of the market can ensure ethical behaviour. The authors of this fascinating book take the tension between 'morals or money' and 'profits or principles' as the starting point of their investigations into how ethical problems emerge and are managed. They show that ethics are at stake in ambiguous situations where different, often contradicting, sets of moral values and rules clash. Business Ethics as Practice will prove a stimulating and fascinating read for scholars of organization theory, organizational behaviour, business and management, and more generally, humanities and the social sciences. Business practitioners will also find much illuminating material to reflect upon and consider within this book.

'If strategy is the queen of business, then this book offers us the perfect introduction to her court! It is accessible, lively, and informative. The book repays the reader with wonderful account of how strategy works. It also lets the reader in on some of the darker secrets of strategy' - Andre Spicer, Associate Professor of Organisation Studies, Warwick Business School Studying Strategy is a welcoming, lively and thought provoking account that helps students get to grips with strategy's key issues and broad debates and introduce them to the latest ideas. Conceived by Chris Grey as an antidote to conventional textbooks, each book in the 'Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap' series takes a core area of the curriculum and turns it on its head by providing a critical and sophisticated overview of the key issues and debates in an informal, conversational and often humorous way. Suitable for students of strategy at Undergraduate, Masters and MBA level, professionals involved in strategic decision making and anyone interested in how strategy works. Need another VSFI book? Browse the series here

Frameworks of Power is a coherent and comprehensive account of the different frameworks for understanding power that have been advanced by influential thinkers across the social sciences. A true classic in the field, the original edition proved hugely influential and a major point of reference for scholars at all levels concerned with power. Looking back to the classical literature on power, with special emphasis on Machiavelli and Hobbes, the book concentrates on the analysis of power - from both British and American social and political theorists, and from German Critical Theory and French theorists such as Foucault - and develops upon its theory and its application. The second edition includes a completely new chapter, A History of the Present, which offers a timely, engaging and provocative intervention by analysing three contemporary crises - the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia′s invasion of Ukraine and climate change - using the circuits of power framework that was the central concept of the original work.  As well as being an essential textbook for all students in social science disciplines, this wide-ranging and innovative analysis will appeal to scholars in sociology, politics, organization studies and other disciplines.

Written by an expert team and praised for its refreshing approach, this essential text offers a critical, holistic understanding of strategy theory and practice. The fourth edition has been fully updated to include: * Coverage of contemporary issues including the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change and digitalization * Topical and engaging case studies such as Disney's Strategy and Covid-19, Netflix Versus Amazon: Dynamic Capabilities for Global Success, and PS5, Xbox and BMW: Chips and Supply Chains * A wealth of new examples of strategy in practice from world-renowned organisations such as Google, Uniqlo, Tesla, IKEA, and Airbnb Suitable for both undergraduate and postgraduate study, Strategy: Theory and Practice encourages readers to engage critically with the internal and external factors that shape strategy in the real world. A selection of tried and tested online resources, including a teaching guide, PowerPoints, an online case study bank and test bank of questions have been developed to support lecturers using the book in their teaching. Stewart Clegg is Professor at the University of Sydney, Emeritus Professor at the University of Technology Sydney, and Visiting Professor at the University of Stavanger, University of Johannesburg, and Nova School of Business and Economics. Christos Pitelis is Head of Department of International Business and Professor of International Business and Sustainable Competitiveness at the University of Leeds, and Life Fellow at Queens' College, University of Cambridge. Jochen Schweitzer is an Associate Professor at the University of Technology Sydney. Andrea Whittle is Professor of Management at Newcastle University Business School.

Project management is an essential life and workplace skill that everyone must develop. Following the popular style and format of other textbooks by Stewart Clegg, this brand new co-authored textbook on project management provides a much needed European perspective to the subject. Drawing on the latest research and practice, the authors guide students on an active learning journey through the project lifespan, promoting a critical and reflexive approach to studying project management, as well as one that creates value for all project stakeholders and emphasizes people and not just process. Case studies and examples discussed in the text cover a wide range of projects from large to smaller across different industries and sectors, both public and private, including: megaprojects (HS2); mega events (Olympics); political projects (Brexit); health-related project implementation (LEAN); tech-related projects (Google); building and restoration projects (housing/Sagrada Familia); and arts and cultural projects (European Capital of Culture). Incorporating a host of learning features both in chapters and via the supporting online resources, this textbook is essential reading for all students/managers completing a course unit in project management at either undergraduate or postgraduate level.

Project management is an essential life and workplace skill that everyone must develop. Following the popular style and format of other textbooks by Stewart Clegg, this brand new co-authored textbook on project management provides a much needed European perspective to the subject. Drawing on the latest research and practice, the authors guide students on an active learning journey through the project lifespan, promoting a critical and reflexive approach to studying project management, as well as one that creates value for all project stakeholders and emphasizes people and not just process. Case studies and examples discussed in the text cover a wide range of projects from large to smaller across different industries and sectors, both public and private, including: megaprojects (HS2); mega events (Olympics); political projects (Brexit); health-related project implementation (LEAN); tech-related projects (Google); building and restoration projects (housing/Sagrada Familia); and arts and cultural projects (European Capital of Culture). Incorporating a host of learning features both in chapters and via the supporting online resources, this textbook is essential reading for all students/managers completing a course unit in project management at either undergraduate or postgraduate level.

Covering all the basics in organizational behaviour, as well critically reflecting on the institutions and practices of business life, the sixth edition of Managing and Organizations: An Introduction to Theory and Practice has been updated to include: * Cutting-edge content on diversity and inclusion, design thinking, followership and deglobalization * New and updated 'In Practice' boxes offering real-world examples * Engaging case studies, such as How to start decolonising your business, Power and empathy and How COVID-19 has changed university teaching * New 'Additional Resources' in each chapter This textbook is essential reading for anyone studying organizational behaviour at undergraduate or postgraduate level. A wealth of online resources for both students and lecturers, including a fully revised Instructor's Manual, PowerPoint slides and additional case studies, are available via the companion website. Stewart Clegg is Professor at the University of Stavanger, Norway; University of Sydney and Emeritus Professor at University of Technology Sydney, Australia Tyrone S. Pitsis is Professor of Strategy, Technology & Society at Durham University Business School. Matt Mount is Assistant Professor of Strategy and Innovation at Deakin Business School, Melbourne.

This wide-ranging analysis both explores current approaches to organization studies and relates the concepts of modernity and postmodernity to the realities of organizational structure and context. In surveying alternative perspectives on organizations in terms of ideal types, systems, contingencies, ecologies, cultures, markets and efficiency, Clegg demonstrates that no single approach is adequate to deal with the real-world variety of organizations that exist. Drawing upon unusual and revealing examples - the production of French bread, Italian fashion and `post-Confucian' Asian enterprises - he argues that their success cannot be reduced to `culture' but must incorporate a fuller understanding of the ways in which organizations are constructed and reproduced. This analysis is carried through in a detailed discussion of the debate over why Japanese organizations are so successful.