Steve Fleetwood

Stephen Ackroyd

Critical realism has become increasingly important in the way organization and management is studied. This innovative book argues for an alternative to the prevailing ontology, and shows how positivism and its empirical realist ontology can be abandoned without having to accept strong social constructionism. Critical Realist Applications in Organisation and Management Studies applies critical realism in four ways. First, in the removal of meta-theoretical obstacles that hinder the development of fruitful theoretical and empirical work. Second and third, as a meta-theoretical tool with which to develop appropriate methodological and theoretical frameworks which can then be used to inform appropriate empirical work, and finally, all of this is applied across a broad range of subject areas including critical management studies, accountancy, marketing, health care management, operations research, the nature of work, human resource management, labour process theory, regional analysis, and work and labour market studies. Ideal for postgraduates and professionals, this key book will be a valuable resource across a wide range of subjects.

Critical Realist Applications in Organisation and Management Studies

This is the first book-length treatment of critical realism in business and management. It pulls together a wide range of material and addresses issues such as the nature of the firm and the labour process.

Realist Perspectives on Management and Organisations

Professor of Organizational Analysis and Head of the Department of Organization Work and Technology Stephen Ackroyd

Paul Thompson

'[A] textbook specifically aimed at organizational misbehaviour. ...it certainly fills a gap... containing a large survey of academic literature on the subject. The book is good: it brings to light subjects which are too often negleced, and it provides an understanding of phenomena which are so common in organizations, but at the same time so vague and incomprehensible' Organization Studies From `soldiering' and absenteeism to humour in organizations and the emergence politics of sexuality, this book explores the latest forms of organizational subversion and offers fresh insights of the underlying dynamics of management and organizational processes. The book opens with a critique of orthodox organizational analysis and maps out the wide terrain across which organizational `misbehaviour' occurs. The authors go on to examine the interconnections between identity formation, the pursuit of autonomy and organizational misbehaviour, and explore how clearly the tendency to misbehave is deeply embedded in organizational life.

Stephen Ackroyd

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