Approaches to leadership and management are still dominated by prescriptions – usually claimed as scientific – for top executives to choose the future direction of their organization. The global financial recession and the collapse of investment capitalism (surely not planned by anyone) make it quite clear that top executives are simply not able to choose future directions. Despite this, current management literature mostly continues to avoid the obvious – management’s inability to predict or control what will happen in the future. The key question now must be how we are to think about management if we take the uncertainty of organizational life seriously.
Ralph Stacey has turned to the sciences of uncertainty and complexity to develop an understanding of leadership and management as the ordinary politics of daily organizational life. In presenting organizations as a series of complex responsive processes, Stacey’s new book helps us to see organizational reality for what it actually is – human beings engaged in many, many local conversational interactions and power relations in which they negotiate their ideologically based choices. Organizational continuity and change emerge unpredictably, rather than as a result of any overall plan. This is a radically different picture from the one painted by most of the management literature, which explains "organizational continuity and change" as the realization of the global plans and choices of a few powerful executives within an organization.
Providing a new foundation for understanding complexity and management, this important book is required reading for managers and leaders wanting to understand the reality of complexity in organizations, including those engaged in postgraduate studies in leadership, organizational behaviour and change management.
"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Ralph Stacey is Professor of Management and Director of the Doctor of Management Program at the Business School of the University of Hertfordshire, UK.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
Seller: WeBuyBooks, Rossendale, LANCS, United Kingdom
Condition: Very Good. Most items will be dispatched the same or the next working day. A copy that has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # rev4415957060
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: WorldofBooks, Goring-By-Sea, WS, United Kingdom
Paperback. Condition: Very Good. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # GOR007468874
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Basi6 International, Irving, TX, U.S.A.
Condition: Brand New. New. Delivery takes 25-30 days. Excellent Customer Service. Seller Inventory # POD-531071
Seller: GreatBookPrices, Columbia, MD, U.S.A.
Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 6393564-n
Seller: Majestic Books, Hounslow, United Kingdom
Condition: New. pp. 264 This item is printed on demand. Seller Inventory # 8137579
Quantity: 3 available
Seller: GreatBookPricesUK, Woodford Green, United Kingdom
Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 6393564-n
Quantity: 10 available
Seller: Books Puddle, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Condition: New. pp. 264 2nd Edition. Seller Inventory # 26758964
Seller: THE SAINT BOOKSTORE, Southport, United Kingdom
Paperback / softback. Condition: New. New copy - Usually dispatched within 4 working days. Seller Inventory # B9780415556477
Quantity: 1 available
Seller: Biblios, Frankfurt am main, HESSE, Germany
Condition: New. pp. 264. Seller Inventory # 18758974
Quantity: 3 available
Seller: moluna, Greven, Germany
Condition: New. Seller Inventory # 594649608
Quantity: Over 20 available