...ORGANIZATION SCIENCE Vol. 2, No. 4, November 1991 Printed in U.S.A. ILLUSIONS AND OTHER GAMES: A TRIFOCAL VIEW OF ORGANIZATIONAL POLITICS* PATRICIA BRADSHAW-CAMBALL AND VICTOR V. MURRAY York University, 4700 Keele Street, North York, Ontario, Canada Despite recent and growing interest in organizational politics, conceptual thought in this area tends to be dominated by a single theoretical perspective. In this paper we describe and contrast three views of organizational politics (functionalist, interpretive and radical) according to their differing structures, processes and outcomes. Each view, or lens, directs attention to some aspects of politics and away from others, and each has strengths and weaknesses embedded in it. In order to assess whether multiple perspectives on politics can be fruitfully applied simultaneously, we describe and analyze a case of a hospital administration engaged in budgeting games and illusion making. The data for the case were collected using naturalistic inquiry and multiple methods including structured and unstructured interviews, review of documents, observation of meetings and casual interaction facilitated by frequent visits over a ten-month period. The case revolves around the hospital administrators' attempts to deal with what they termed a "disastrous deficit" and the most serious financial situation in the hospital's history. Strategies for dealing with the funding agency and board of directors included the management...
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...Management knowledge and knowledge management: realism and forms of truth John Mingers1 1Kent Business School, University of Kent, Canterbury, U.K. Correspondence: John Mingers, Kent Business School, University of Kent, Canterbury, Kent, CT2 7PE, U.K. Tel: þ44 1227 824008; E-mail: j.mingers@kent.ac.uk Received: 24 July 2007 Accepted: 15 October 2007 Abstract This paper addresses the issue of truth and knowledge in management generally and knowledge management in particular. Based on ideas from critical realism and critical theory, it argues against the monovalent conceptualization of knowledge implicitly or explicitly held by many authors and aims instead to develop a characterization that recognizes the rich and varied ways in which human beings may be said ‘to know’. It points out and conceptualizes a fundamental dimension of knowledge that is generally ignored or cursorily treated within the literature, that is, ‘truth’. It identifies four forms of knowledge – propositional, experiential, performative and epistemological – and explores their characteristics, especially in terms of truth and validity. It points out some implications for knowledge management. Knowledge Management Research & Practice (2008) 6, 62–76. doi:10.1057/palgrave.kmrp.8500161 Keywords: knowledge management; knowledge; information; critical realism; critical theory; truth Introduction Although knowledge management (KM) has established itself as a bona fide subject both in practice...
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...Joimml of Marketing Management, 1994, 10, 703-723' Douglas Brownlie Department of Stirling, UK Organizing for Environmental Scanning: Reformations Enmrontnental scanning is one of the cornerstones of strategic marketing. A plethora of normative literature argues that it plays u key role in bringing information about the external environment to the attention of decision-makers in order that they can make better informed decisions. This literature also provides a rich source of ideas about how to go about environmental scanning, particularly dealing with the collection of data and the various techniques that can be used to analyse that data. Yet, empirical findings point strongly to the view that the low deeds of environmental scanning practice, diverge in some important respects from the high-minded prescriptions of the normative literature. Various explanations can be put forward for this. This paper considers those explanations. Specifically ii explores the assumptions and premises about the constructs of organization and environment which inform the strategic marketing literature. It argues the case for alternative images of organization and environment. And on the basis of this, proposes the concept of Marketing, University of O r t h o c l o x i e S a n d writerly environment scanning, embedding environmental scanning in broader political and cultural processes both within and Tvithaut the organization. Introduction Although environmental scanning has its...
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...® Acodemy of Management Heview 1993, Vol. 18, No. 3. 518-545. FOUCAULT. POWER/KNOWLEDGE. AND ITS RELEVANCE FOR HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT BARBARA TOWNLEY The University of Alberta Drawing on the work of Michel Foucault. I argue that human resource management (HRM) may be best understood as a discourse and set of practices that attempt to reduce the indeterminacy involved in the employment contract. Here I reread HRM practices from a Foucauldian power-knowledge perspective and suggest that this provides an avenue to reorient contemporary, historical, and comparative analyses of the area. A glimpse at human resource management (HRM) texts would seem to give light to a comment by Beer, Spector, Lawrence, Mills, and Walton (1984) that HRM is a series of seemingly disjointed activities. This notion echoes an earlier view of Baldamus (1961: 347) that what is encompassed by HRM's subject matter is "anything from supervision, incentives and profit sharing to machine-paced production, methods of training and employee selection." Often this heterogeneity is excused in terms of HRM's reflecting the ad hoc and reactive nature of its origins (Jacoby, 1985; Niven, 1967; Ozanne, 1967). What the heterogeneity of HRM highlights, however, is the importance of an organizing principle, or analytical focus, as opposed to common sense description, which gives HRM practices a theoretical coherence. HRM's heterogeneity stresses the importance of an order "that turns a set of bits, which have limited...
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.... Organization Theory Challenges and Perspectives John McAuley, Joanne Duberley and Phil Johnson . This book is, to my knowledge, the most comprehensive and reliable guide to organisational theory currently available. What is needed is a text that will give a good idea of the breadth and complexity of this important subject, and this is precisely what McAuley, Duberley and Johnson have provided. They have done some sterling service in bringing together the very diverse strands of work that today qualify as constituting the subject of organisational theory. Whilst their writing is accessible and engaging, their approach is scholarly and serious. It is so easy for students (and indeed others who should know better) to trivialize this very problematic and challenging subject. This is not the case with the present book. This is a book that deserves to achieve a wide readership. Professor Stephen Ackroyd, Lancaster University, UK This new textbook usefully situates organization theory within the scholarly debates on modernism and postmodernism, and provides an advanced introduction to the heterogeneous study of organizations, including chapters on phenomenology, critical theory and psychoanalysis. Like all good textbooks, the book is accessible, well researched and readers are encouraged to view chapters as a starting point for getting to grips with the field of organization theory. Dr Martin Brigham, Lancaster University, UK McAuley et al. provide a highly readable account...
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.... ReseaRching and WRiting a disseRtation a guidebook foR business students Colin Fisher second edition . Researching and Writing a Dissertation: A Guidebook for Business Students . We work with leading authors to develop the strongest educational materials in management, bringing cutting-edge thinking and best learning practice to a global market. Under a range of well-known imprints, including Financial Times Prentice Hall, we craft high-quality print and electronic publications which help readers to understand and apply their content, whether studying or at work. To find out more about the complete range of our publishing, please visit us on the World Wide Web at: www.pearsoned.co.uk . Researching and Writing a Dissertation: A Guidebook for Business Students Second edition Colin Fisher with John Buglear Diannah Lowry Alistair Mutch Carole Tansley . Pearson Education Limited Edinburgh Gate Harlow Essex CM20 2JE England and Associated Companies throughout the world Visit us on the World Wide Web at: www.pearsoned.co.uk First published 2004 Second edition 2007 © Pearson Education Limited 2004 © Pearson Education Limited 2007 The right of Colin Fisher to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical...
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