SAGE Handbook of New Approaches in Management and Organization

RSM professors participate in new handbook on innovative approaches in Management and Organisation

<link people slawomir-magala _blank>Slawek Magala, Professor of cross-cultural management and Chair of the department of organisational sciences and human resource management at the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and <link people gail-whiteman _blank>Gail Whiteman, Associate Professor at the Department of Business-Society Management, are among the keynote authors who made a high-standard contribution to a new advanced handbook in the business and management arena. The SAGE Handbook of New Approaches in Management and Organization provides many diverse and provocative ideas which could turn out to be highly influential on future organisational concepts.

In the chapter ‘The Social Life of Values’ (ch. 16)Magala underlines the large, sudden and almost global impact of the Danish “cartoon war”, which demonstrates the power of the multimedia communications in mobilizing immediate support for politically sensitive issues worldwide. And next, the unbalanced and inadequate reactions by the various involved parties focussed on the themes of freedom of expression and freedom of religious worship, which were largely irrelevant for the main actors in the conflict, whose grievances were of a more mundane sort (access to education, employment and recognition among citizenry). In the last decades society has dramatically evolved, especially as far as cross-cultural domain of borrowings and idiom translations are concerned . Magala wants to illustrate that what happens in society at large, happens daily within business organisations even if managers are reluctant to recognize it. This means that if society has to adapt to new cultural settings, organisations have to face the hard facts, namely that they are challenged in the same way as politicians in national arenas.

A totally different perspective is introduced in a chapter ‘The Role of Narrative Fiction and Semi-Fiction in Organisational Studies’ (ch. 19) by Whiteman and coauthor Nelson Phillips from Imperial College in London. They argue that organizational theorists need to move beyond a focus on facts and ‘reality’, and can usefully deploy narrative fiction and the power of scholarly imagination to enrich our understanding of organizations.

They argue that fiction can be useful as an innovative source of data about organizations and can also be a compelling way of representing theory to an audience. Semi-fiction, on the other hand, provides a novel approach to the production and representation of organizational theory. In both cases, they acknowledge that researchers face a number of challenges. But at the same time they conclude that experimental scholars can gain access to new and powerful techniques for developing insights into organizational topics.

Magala and Whiteman are in good companionship of many other prominent authors, each of them with their own and unique innovative perspective on business and management. Therefore this book is of importance to anyone interested in innovative approaches to business and management scholarship.

Ten years ago, critical theory and postmodernism were considered new and emerging theories in business and management. What will be the next new important theories to shape the field?

In one edited volume, Daved Barry and Hans Hansen have commissioned new chapters that will allow readers to stay one step ahead of the latest thinking. Contributors draw on research and practice to introduce ideas that are considered 'fringe' and controversial today, but may be key theoretical contributions tomorrow.

Each chapter sets these ideas in their historical context, lays out the key theoretical positions taken by each new approach and makes it clear why these approaches are different to more mainstream concepts. Throughout, contributors refer to existing studies that show how these developing themes will change the business and management arena.

Researchers, teachers and advanced students who are interested in the future of Business and Management scholarship will want to read this Handbook.

More Information
Book Website
<link people slawomir-magala _blank>Personal Homepage Slawek Magala
<link people gail-whiteman _blank>Personal Homepage Gail Whiteman