Mats Alvesson

Dagens samhälle utmärks av grandiosa självbeskrivningar och anspråk i stor skala. Detta samtidigt som kampen om godbitarna – yrkespositioner, utbildning och konsumtion – i allt högre grad handlar om ett nollsummespel. Varumärkta produkter uttrycker identitet och tjusighet. Men mycket av detta är­ ­substanslöst prat och rymmer inslag av bondfångeri och själv­­bedrägeri. Bakom den grandiosa fasaden lurar tomhetens triumf.

Researchers conducting interviews in the social sciences quickly find that there is no single best way to approach their task. This text offers a critique of traditional interviewing practices and provides a framework for thinking about issues such as trustworthiness, identity and language in a conceptual rather than technical context, allowing you to develop your own reflexive practice. The research interview is in with the brick and mortar of qualitative research, and is one of the routine methods of obtaining knowledge of individuals, groups and organizations. Through the use of eight original metaphors drawing on trends in language, subject and discourse, this cutting-edge text will encourage you to question the interpretive nature and theoretical underpinnings not only of your interview method, but of the knowledge which is conveyed through it. This text is essential reading for postgraduate students of qualitative methods and researchers looking to more clearly conceptualise their interviewing practice and explore its theoretical basis.

Vem är det som ska utöva ledarskap? Är ledarskap inte också en fråga om ömsesidighet, där rollen som efterföljare är betydelsefull för vilken typ av ledarskapsrelation som utvecklas? Vilken betydelse har sammanhanget och karaktären på organisationskulturen för vilket ledarskap som är mest effektivt? Detta är några av de frågor som berörs i boken Ledarskap.

Företagsekonomins frågor kan användas som introduktion till företagsekonomistudierna, men den vänder sig också till alla andra som vill få en lättläst inblick i vad modern företagsekonomi handlar om. Denna titel har tidigare givits ut av SNS förlag men ingår numera i Studentlitteraturs sortiment.

`An unusually comprehensive and sophisticated analysis of how organizations and the men and women who work within them are affected by gendered processes and relations. Alvesson and Billing's contribution is unique in its sensitivity to the wide range of processes affected by gender paired with its sensitivity to the pitfalls of inappropriately applying a gender lens. This book is a must-read for organizational researchers and gender scholars' - Debra Meyerson, Stanford University `Students and scholars alike will find this at once a useful overview and a thought-provoking take on the complexity of gender-in-organizations and gendered organizations' - Robin J. Ely, Warren Alpert Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School In the decade since the first edition of this critical and provocative text, many aspects of gender have changed, and many have stayed the same. While the gendered study of organizations is a growing field in its own right, in many real-life organizations gaps in gendered job roles and pay are as entrenched as they were. This Second Edition is a long-awaited update to an essential text in this dynamic and expanding field of inquiry, incorporating new, international perspectives that incorporate recent theory and debate, and a new chapter on gender and identity.

`An unusually comprehensive and sophisticated analysis of how organizations and the men and women who work within them are affected by gendered processes and relations. Alvesson and Billing's contribution is unique in its sensitivity to the wide range of processes affected by gender paired with its sensitivity to the pitfalls of inappropriately applying a gender lens. This book is a must-read for organizational researchers and gender scholars' - Debra Meyerson, Stanford University `Students and scholars alike will find this at once a useful overview and a thought-provoking take on the complexity of gender-in-organizations and gendered organizations' - Robin J. Ely, Warren Alpert Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School In the decade since the first edition of this critical and provocative text, many aspects of gender have changed, and many have stayed the same. While the gendered study of organizations is a growing field in its own right, in many real-life organizations gaps in gendered job roles and pay are as entrenched as they were. This Second Edition is a long-awaited update to an essential text in this dynamic and expanding field of inquiry, incorporating new, international perspectives that incorporate recent theory and debate, and a new chapter on gender and identity.

Boken gir en innføring i kulturperspektivet på organisasjon og ledelse. Den presenterer praktiske eksempler på hvordan det kulturelle perspektivet kan anvendes i en organisasjons- og ledelsessammenheng, og fokuserer på det å håndtere komplekse situasjoner og forstå organisasjonskultur. Boken er ment for studenter i samfunnsfag, sosiologi, organisasjons- og ledelsesfag.. Har referanseliste og register.

This book addresses the concept of knowledge, and its use in the contexts of work and organizations. It provides a critical understanding of current approaches to knowledge management, organization, and the 'knowledge economy'. The author describes a number of cases of 'knowledge intensive firms', including IT firms, management consultancy firms, advertising agencies, and life science companies. He emphasizes the ambiguity of knowledge in the input, process, and output of professional work, and suggests that we should be careful in assuming too much about the nature, role, and effects of 'knowledge' in business life. Instead we should understand the constructed nature of knowledge and scrutinize knowledge claims carefully. Alvesson looks at several aspects of management and working life, including human resource management issues, client control, and the regulation of identity. Rhetoric, symbolism, image, the politics of knowledge claims, and identity are all shown to be crucial for understanding the management of 'knowledge intensive firms'. By challenging key assumptions in current thinking about knowledge and organization, a novel theoretical approach is suggested. The book will be of interest to business and management academics concerned with issues of knowledge and organization, and will serve as supplementary reading for graduate and final year undergraduate business and management students.

The book addresses the concept of knowledge in a work and organizational context, professional or knowledge work, and knowledge-intensive firms. It provides a critical, moderate social constructivist understanding of these themes and the current interest in knowledge management, organization and the "knowledge economy". Professional service as well as science and high-tech work and firms are treated, reporting case studies of IT and management consultancy firms, advertising agencies and life science based companies. The concepts of knowledge and knowledge management are discussed and dominant functionalist thinking debunked. The ambiguity of knowledge in the input, process and output of professional work is emphasized. It is suggested that we should be careful in assuming too much about the nature, role and effects of "knowledge" in business life and instead take the constructed nature of knowledge seriously and scrutinize knowledge claims. Knowledge talk and claims may frequently be key elements in marketing and identity work as much as they inform us about key activities of professionals and knowledge-intensive firms. The book covers a fairly broad set of management, organization and working life aspects are addressed, including HRM themes and different forms of control including client control and regulation of identity. From a perspective emphasizing the ambiguity of social and business life, rhetoric, symbolism, image, politics of knowledge claims, identity and identity work are viewed as crucial for the understanding and management of professional/knowledge work and organizations. The book is provocative and challenges key assumptions in dominant knowledge and organization thinking, suggesting a novel theoretical approach. The book is intended for third year level undergraduates upwards, and aims to say things also of relevance for scholars. It mixes textbook and research ambitions. As a (moderately) constructivist text with a relatively broad focus, the book may have some potential as a text complementing more conventional textbooks also in general organization and management courses.

* What is postmodernism?* How can it be used to develop social research?* How can we do social research in more creative ways? This book integrates philosophical and theoretical ideas with fieldwork and supports the development of research methods with a sharper interpretive and self-critical edge. It provides an overview of postmodern themes, evaluates the possibilities and dangers of postmodernist thinking and develops ideas on how a selective, sceptical incorporation of postmodernism can make social research more conscious about problems and pitfalls, and more creative in working with empirical material (so called 'data'). A reflexive orientation runs throughout the book, which addresses themes such as how to understand the individual in research, how to deal with the knowledge/power connection, how to relate to language and how to unpack rather than take for granted socially dominant categories in research work. One chapter addresses the research interview in the light of postmodernist concerns about the naivity of assuming that the interviewee is simply an informant, a truth-teller authentically expressing his or her experiences and meaning. Other chapters address issues of voice, interpretation, writing and reflexivity. The book includes a range of empirical illustrations of how postmodernist ideas can inspire social research, and in all it represents an essential text for students and researchers alike.