Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

This unique handbook presents a major retrospective and prospective overview of the field of organization studies. Drawing on the talents of an outstanding team of international contributors, the editors have assembled, assessed and synthesized the key strands in past and current theory.

The text moves from the general to the specific, from the past to the present and from the present to the future. Addressing the established traditions, as well as newer foci of inquiry, it examines the questions that the fin de si[gr]ecle poses for organizations, and for ourselves as organization members and researchers. Central to the enterprise has been a concern to reflect and honour the manifest diversity of the field - includin

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Introduction
• Organizations, Organization and Organizing
• Part 1 Frameworks for Analysis
• Organizational Theorizing
• The Normal Science of Structural Contingency Theory
• Organizational Ecology
• Understanding the Relationship between Organizations and Economic Analysis
• The Institutionalization of Institutional Theory
• Critical Theory and Postmodernism Approaches to Organizational Studies
• From 'The Woman's' Point of View
• A Historically Contested Terrain
• The Great Disappearing Act?
• Organizational Economics
• The Individual in Organizational Studies
• Feminist Approaches to Organization Studies
• Part 2 Current Issues in Organization Studies
• Creative Deconstruction
• Strategy and Organizations
• Leadership in Organizations
• Decision-Making in Organizations
• Cognitions in Organizations
• Diverse Identities in Organizations
• Putting Group Information Technology in its Place
• Communication and Good Work Group Performance
• Metaphors of Communication and Organization
• Organizations, Technology and Structuring
• Organizing for Innovation
• Organizational Learning
• Affirming an Oxymoron
• Organizations and the Biosphere
• Ecologies and Environments
• Evolution and Revolution
• From International Business to Globalization
• Part 3 Reflections On Research, Theory and Practice
• Data in Organization Studies
• Action Research for the Study of Organizations
• Emotion and Organizing
• Exploring the Aesthetic Side of Organizational Life
• Images of Time in Work and Organization
• The Organizational Culture War Games
• A Struggle for Intellectual Dominance
• Some Dare Call It Power
• Normal Science, Paradigms, Metaphors, Discourses and Genealogies of Analysis
• The Owl of Minerva
• Reflections on Theory in Practice
• Conclusion
• Representations

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

The editors frame this text on organization studies (OS) as one which is "to map the terrain" of organization research and enable "conversations" between different research paradigms and traditions. The book consists of three major sections: frameworks for analysis (theoretical paradigms); current issues (e.g., deconstruction, leadership, innovation); and reflections on research, theory, and practice (e.g., action research, images of time). Both well-known OS writers and newer "other voices" are included. The book is anchored by an extensive introduction and a summary that urges researchers to be more reflective about their theoretical paradigms and their roles as researchers. The editors argue that neither the structuralist nor the postmodernist paradigm is sufficient unto itself and that the practical, and not just the theoretical, implications of research must be considered. Even the target audience--graduate students and researchers--will find some of the material hard going given the considerable variance in readability from chapter to chapter. Some chapters are better than others, but overall this excellent resource delivers what it promises--a look at the past, current, and future state of OS research that will stimulate conversations between researchers and scholars. B. J. Keinath; Metropolitan State University