Management Lives : Power and Identity in Work Organizations

`The authors bring a spark of vitality and life to an area that could be cynically viewed as a series of conflicting fads and fashions....I would recommend anyone in the process of reviewing or designing an entrepreneurship development course to consider the benefits that this book would bring to the teaching process′ - Entrepreneurship and Innovation

`Using fiction in the classroom as an approach to stimulating the study of people in organizations is well-established. What this book contributes is a way of exploring some of the existential elements of life in organizations, which are typically difficult to study. It will be on my reading lists. Hopefully, this example, and regrettably few others which exist, will contribute in the long term to the reformulation of how the lived experience of organizational life may be explored in the classroom′ - Leadership & Organization Development Journal

Based on courses taught by the authors over many years, this innovative text is a lively and accessible analysis of people at work and the problems they have to confront. The student is introduced to a range of key themes in management such as: power and identity; consumption and bureaucracy; rational choice and meaning all through the medium of characters and situations in contemporary literature.

The clear theoretical framework, supported by footnotes, summaries and further reading guides, makes this an introduction to management the student will find useful as well as enjoyable.

David Knights is Research Professor at the Bristol Business School and a Visiting Professor at Gothenburg School of Business, Economics and Law. He is a founding and continuing editor of the journal Gender, Work and Organisation. He is also the founder and continuing director of the Financial Services Research Forum that funds academic research and engages in critical debate with practitioners on this sector. He has published widely in the field of management and organization analysis and is a member of the editorial boards of several international journals.

Hugh Willmott is Professor of Management at Cass Business School and also holds the position of Professor of Organization Studies at Cardiff Business School, Wales. His research interests span the sub-fields of management organization studies and he is particularly interested in the development and application of management theory by drawing upon the resources of critical social science. He has co-authored two major textbooks, including Introducing Organizational Behaviour & Management (co-edited with David Knights, Cengage Learning, 2017) and, additionally, has published over 20 books and contributed to a wide range of management and social science journals. .