Books written by Mats Alvesson

Qualitative Research and Theory Development: Mystery as Method

20; see also Richardson, 2000). This may say more about the established standards for presentation in journals – despite decades of positivism-critique – and less about how researchers actually work. Arguably, breakdowns and projects ...
Reflexive Leadership: Organising in an imperfect world

Manz, C. (1986) Selfleadership: toward an expanded theory of selfinfluence processes in organizations. Academy of Management Review 11(3), pp. 585–600. Manz, C. & Sims, H. (1980) Selfmanagement as a substitute for leadership: a social ...
Managerial Lives: Leadership and Identity in an Imperfect World

Pearce, C.L. & Manz, C.C. (2005), The new silver bullets of leadership: The importance of self- and shared leadership in knowledge work. Organizational Dynamics, 34(2), s. 130–140. Peterson, D.B. & Hicks, M.D. (1996), Leader as Coach: ...
Gender, Managers, and Organizations

When a male manager did something wrong, he was corrected, but if a female manager did the same it was ignored, according to an interview with Harlan (in Collins, 1982). Collins thinks that the supervisors were not interested in ...
Understanding Gender and Organizations

... Hartsock, 1987; Collins, 1997; Smith, 1997). This approach considers the nature of knowledge and knowledge creation in far greater depth than the robust category perspective. All significant aspects of society are, in principle, ...
Reflexive Methodology: New Vistas for Qualitative Research

This third edition of Reflexive Methodology provides further updates on new research, including neorealism, and illustrations and applications of reflexive methodology in formulating research strategies, that build on the acclaimed and ...
Making Sense of Management: A Critical Introduction

A basic problem with current theory and practice of management is that a narrow, instrumental conception of reason ... the subsequent pollution of the Gulf of Mexico through the summer of 2010, were the result of poor risk management ...
Return to Meaning: A Social Science with Something to Say

This book argues that we are currently witnessing not merely a decline in the quality of social science research, but the proliferation of meaningless research, of no value to society, and modest value to its authors - apart from securing ...
Qualitative Research and Theory Development: Mystery as Method

Rather than thinking about the theory-data ′fit′, Alvesson and Karreman will encourage you to consider the research process as one of theory-data interplay, asking if creative empirical material can challenge established theory and ...
Doing Critical Management Research

Doing Critical Management Research provides a detailed discussion of the practice of doing critical research in organisations, utilising and integrating both qualitative research processes and critical theories of ogranisations.
Changing Organizational Culture: Cultural Change Work in Progress

Organizations are faced with increased demands for change but these are often so challenging that they meet heavy resistance and fizzle out.
Knowledge Work and Knowledge-intensive Firms

I do not disagree, but find this focus and framing somewhat tricky as it overemphasizes a rational knowledge base as ... My emphasis on the ambiguity of the results of knowledge work does not mean that I am claiming that these results ...
The Stupidity Paradox: The Power and Pitfalls of Functional Stupidity at Work

This is the stupidity paradox. The Stupidity Paradox tackles head-on the pros and cons of functional stupidity.
The Triumph of Emptiness: Consumption, Higher Education, and Work Organization

The book views the contemporary economy as an economy of persuasion, where firms and institutions assign resources to rhetoric, image, and reputation rather than production of goods and services.
Understanding Gender and Organizations

'Understanding Gender and Organizations' provides an accessible, yet comprehensive and broadly critical overview of gender in organizations, and presents the complex and contradictory nature of gender patterns.
Doing Critical Management Research

This volume gives an authoritative and insightful framework for navigating critical theories and methods across the social sciences, but in particular in relation to the study of corporate organizations.
The Oxford Handbook of Critical Management Studies

The Oxford Handbook of Critical Management Studies provides an overview of theoretical approaches, key topics, issues, and subject specialisms in management studies, as well as a set of reflections on the progress and prospects of CMS.
Making Sense of Management: A Critical Introduction

The first edition of Making Sense of Management set out to provide a fresh perspective on management that was both broad and critical, exploring how the disruptive and constructive potential of critical theory can be realized in ...
Communication, Power and Organization

The book examines the concept of power in a corporate organization, its distribution and how - often unobtrusively - it is expressed and communicated.
The Oxford Handbook of Critical Management Studies

“From Common Sense to Expertise: Reflections on the Prehistory of Audit Sampling,” Accounting, Organisations and Society, 17: 37–62. (1997). The Audit Society: Rituals of Verification. Oxford: Oxford University Press.