Includes bibliographical references and index.

Table of Contents
<hr>1. Introducing organisation theory: What is it, and why does it matter?
Introduction
What is organisation theory?
Defining theory
What are organisations?
The relationship between organisation theory and human activities
The relationship between organisation theory and management practice
Social engineering and organisation theory
Critical alternatives to managerialism in organisation theory
Philosophical disputes and debates: Explaining and understanding the diverse
nature of organisation theory
Mapping some aspects of organisation theory?s diversity
Positivist protagonists: The truth is out there, and we can objectively know it
Philosophical disputes around the role of the subjective in science
Epistemological and ontolological disputes: How can we ever know the ?truth,?
and is there an ?out there??
A few words of warning about the term postmodernism
Overview of the structure and rationale of the book
Chapter summaries
2. Modernist organisation theory: Back to the future?
Matter?
Chapter 3: Neomodernist organisation theory: Putting people first?
Chapter 4. Neomodernist organisation theory: Surfing the new wave?
Chapter 5. Postmodernist organisation theory: New organisational forms for a
new millennium?
Chapter 6. Postmodernism as a philosophy: The ultimate challenge to
organisation theory?
Chapter 7. Reflective organisation theory: Symbols, meanings and
interpretations
Chapter 8. Reflexive organisation theory: Critical theory and psychoanalysis
Chapter 9. The evolution of management as reflected through the lens of
modernist organisation theory
Chapter 10. Perspectives and challenges
<hr>2. Modernist organisation theory: Back to the future?
Introduction
Modernist organisation theory in context
What is modernism?
Modernism and architecture
What is modernist organisation theory?
The historical roots of modernist organisation theory
Classical theory of organisation
Modernist organisation theory: An overview
The modernist ontology: The ordered world of the modernist organisation
The epistemological level: The scientific approach to organisation
The technologies: How modernists get things done
How modernist organisation theory continues to influence the
understanding and exploration of organisations: The organisation as system
General systems theory
Systems theory builds hierarchies of knowledge that relate to different
levels of sophistication in understanding organisations
The basic systems of the organisation: What every organisation must
have to survive
The organisation as simple machine
Level 3: ?Get the structure and systems right so that all is in balance.?
Level 4: ?The machine is alive!?well, almost?
How modernist organisation theory underpins conventional understandings of
the relationship between organisations and society
Is bureaucracy immoral?
Form fits function: How modernist organisational theory challenges the
relationship between individuals, groups and the organisation through bureaucracy
and hierarchy
Modernist themes in organisational design
What is modernism?
Modernist bureaucracy as a key challenge to organisation design
Contingency theory and organisation design
Organisation culture as a key theme in organisation theory
The modernist tradition in organisation culture
Conclusions?Does modernist organisation theory still provide
challenges for new visions of the organisation?
<hr>3. Neomodernist organisation theory: Putting people first?
Introduction
neomodernist organisation theory focuses attention on the human issues in
organisation
?There is nothing so practical as a good theory?
How Roethlisberger developed a ?practical? organisation theory
Column 1: The core contributing social sciences
Column 2: The techniques for analysis
Column 3: The neomodernist perspective
Column 4: Contributions to business and management
Four combinations of science, scientific technique and the neomodernist
approach reach different parts of the organisation
Level 1: Designing and developing the organisation
Level 2: Managing the human resource
Level 3: ?We are a people-centred organisation?
Level 4: The world of the management guru
The human relations school as an example of neomodernist organisation theory
How ?human relations? begins
What is the human relations school?
The human relations school develops
The Hawthorne studies as a classic example of applied organisational research
within the human relations tradition
The relay test Room
The bank wiring observation room
Research and the development of neomodernist organisation theory
Why the Hawthorne studies were so important
How neomodernist organisation theory challenges understandings of the
relationship between organisations and society
A puzzle?Is it is better to ?belong? or to be an ?individual??
Longing to belong: Too much commitment
A reminder?The human relations approach is not the only neomodernist story in town
How neomodernist organisation theory challenges understandings of
organisation culture
Creating a culture that gives meaning to work
Developing understanding of culture
Developing a ?practical theory? of organisational culture
The vehicles of culture
The processes of the communication of culture
The ?heart of culture.?
A tale of two cultures
How neomodernist organisation theory develop challenges in the design of
organisations
The processual perspective
Design and development
Conclusions: Does neomodernist organisation theory exercise challenges for
new visions of the organisation?
<hr>4. Neomodernist organisation theory: Surfing the new wave?
Introduction
The origins of new-wave management
Control in organisations
Unpredictable behaviour
Informal control: Organisational misbehaviour?
Complexity and the problem of implementation
Three types of formal control
Bureaucratic control
Output control
Cultural control
The new wave in action: Managing cultural change
A theoretical explanation of a possible shift in control: A new historical
configuration?
An alternative theoretical explanation: Movements in managerial discourse?
The theoretical origins of new wave theory
Conclusions
<hr>5. Postmodernist organisation theory: New organisational forms for a
new millennium?
Introduction
What is postmodernism?
Is postmodernism anything new?
The history
Post-industrialism and the information society
The virtual organisation
Neo-Fordism, flexible specialisation and post-Fordism
The regulation school
Institutionalist school
The ?managerialist? school
The flexible firm?Critique
Postmodern organisations?The work of Stewart Clegg and Paul Heydebrand
Conclusions
<hr>6. Postmodernism as a philosophy: The ultimate challenge to
organisation theory?
Introduction
What is postmodernism?
Postmodernism: The core elements
Postmodernism and organisation theory
Poststructuralism and postmodernism
The three key thinkers of postmodernism
Jacques Derrida: The linguistic turn and deconstruction
J.F. Lyotard and the nature of knowledge
Foucault: Postmodernism, discourse, knowledge and power
Organisational culture
The challenges of postmodernism to organisation theory
Problematising normal science
Problematising truth
Problematising representation
Problematising writing
Problematising generalisability
Postmodernism and the spectre of relativism
Conclusions
<hr>7. Reflective organisation theory: Symbols, meanings and
interpretations
Introduction
What it means to be reflective
Working and acting together: Symbolic interactionism
?The Chicago school
The processes of making and sharing meaning
The basic assumptions of symbolic interactionism
Strengths and weaknesses of the symbolic interactionist understanding of
organisation
Ethnomethodology: Understanding organisational ?common sense?
Organisational symbolism
Negotiating the way between the self and the organisation?s rules
Developing the organisational identity
Negotiation of meaning influences organisational design
Ideology, rhetoric and negotiation
Arenas and games
Conclusions
<hr>8. Reflexive organisation theory: Critical theory and psychoanalysis
Introduction
The development of critical theory as a challenging perspective in organisation
theory
Critical Theory as seen by the Frankfurt school
Some key influences in the development of critical theory
Critical management studies: Critical theory enters organisation and
management theory
Critical theory develops new understanding of ?the scientific approach?
?The sciences of the spirit?
The models of ?natural science? and the ?sciences of the spirit? come together
Critical theory has practical organisational implications
The development of psychoanalysis as a challenging perspective in organisation
theory
Psychoanalysis gives insight into organisations as a ?practical theory?
The challenge of psychoanalysis to organisations
The key challenges of psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis and critical theory in action
The challenges of critical theory and psychoanalysis for understanding the
individual, the group and the organisation
A critique of critical theory
Critical theory and psychoanalysis develops challenging perspectives on
organisation culture
A psychoanalytic view of organisation culture
The ?unhealthy? organisation culture?When there is conflict
The unhealthy organisation culture?When there is insufficient conflict
Understanding the purpose of the organisation and embedding it in the culture
Critical theory and psychoanalysis present challenging perspectives for
organisational design
Social democracy and the democratic organisation
The example of Scandinavia
Democracy, rationality and power
A psychodynamic perspective on design?Create the boundaries
Critical theory and psychoanalysis challenge understandings of leadership and
management
Conclusions
<hr>9. The evolution of management as reflected through the lens of
modernist organisation theory
Introduction
Conceptualising management
The historical origins and development of management
Technological change and the factory system
The impact of scientific management
The managerial revolution and the origins of managerialism
Redefining managerialism
Leadership and managerialism
Diffusion between institutions: The case of the UK public sector
New public management
Diffusion within organisations: The infiltration of the rank and file
Organisational democracy and a case against managerialism
The economic efficiency case for organisational democracy: A challenge to
managerialism?
Destabilised capitalism
Employee alienation as the key problem
Conclusions
<hr>10. Perspectives and challenges
Introduction
Comparing the different perspectives
A modernist perspective
A neomodernist perspective
A new-wave perspective
A postmodern perspective
A reflective perspective
A critical theory and psychoanalytic perspective
A managerialist perspective
The paradigm debate
The practical utility of organisation theory
Current trends
Globalisation
Institutional and neoinstitutional theory
Discourse
The aesthetics of organising
One final look at organisational culture
Conclusions