Experiencing Organizations - Softcover

Fineman, Stephen; Gabriel, Yiannis

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0803978715 ISBN 13: 9780803978713

Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd, 1996

Synopsis

An ideal companion to more conventional case studies and textbooks, this volume brings together a fascinating collection of real-life stories about experiences in organizations at the turn of the millenium. Told through the fresh, sharp eyes of new organizational recruits, these sometimes comic, often traumatic, but always vivid and revealing accounts have much to say to learners and older hands alike. Grouped in sections on images, winning and losing, and surviving and injuries, the narratives encompass a wide gamut of themes and issues. Theses include: power and politics in organizations; organizational cultures and change; gender and discrimination; appearances and realities; leaders and followers; and emotion, motivation and stress. We also encounter the coldly competitive features of businesses where processes such as restructuring, rationalization and downsizing are increasingly commonplace. Throughout, commentaries by Stephen Fineman and Yiannis Gabriel highlight particular points of analysis and learning, while each chapter concludes with questions for discussion, and a selected bibliography enabling further reading. Full of the kind of detail which is often unreported, recounted with passion and authenticity, Experiencing Organizations is an outstanding resource for students of organizational behaviour and theory, organizational and occupational psychology and general management studies.

About this title

About the Author:

Stephen Fineman is Professor of Organizational Behaviour, School of Management, University of Bath

CONTRIBUTORS′ AFFILIATIONS OUTSIDE NORTH AMERICA:

Gillian Bendelow University of Warwick

Karen P Harlos University of Otago, Dunedin

Avraham N Kluger The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Berry Mayall University of London

Anat Rafaeli Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management, Technion, Haifa

Varda Wasserman The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Review:

`The success of the book, according to the authors, on whether the readers will find the material interesting, amusing, moving, alarming; "in short, whether it resonates with their own experiences and interests" (p. 188). On this count, it would be very odd if the book is not successful.... a stimulating and unpretentious additon to the literature on organizational behaviour′ - Industrial Relations Journal

`Even though behavioural theories on organizations have been around for quite a while, live reality is different. Experiencing Organizations is a book that collects cases: cases narrated by newcomers to organizations and students on internships. They are, in the authors′ words, "unusually frank expressions of real experience", and, I would add, very rewarding to read′ - Organization Studies

`Some revealing insights into what really happens in organizations, seen through the eyes of new recruits′ - Long Range Planning

`This book is a wonderful antidote to those dry and colorless tomes that pass as introductory texts of organizational behavior. Order it, read it, use it!′ - Larry Hirschhorn, Center for Applied Research, Philadelphia

`Ingenious and original. Young people′s vivid first-hand accounts of the daily dramas of business life, economically and intelligently balanced with sympathetic commentary, thought-provoking questions and scholarly reference′ - Nigel Nicholson, London Business School

`The stories by students of observations and experiences from their first internships in organizations are rich and evocative. Coupled with cogent interpretations and thoughtful discussions by Fineman and Gabriel, Experiencing Organizations is a first-rate vehicle for teaching and learning about organizational life′ - Peter Frost, University of British Columbia, Vancouver

About this edition

• Publisher: SAGE Publications Ltd
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0803978715
• ISBN 13: 9780803978713
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 200