Intro -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- List of Boxes -- List of Abbreviations -- 1 Introduction: Why and How Should We Think about Work? -- Work, Organizations, and Capitalism -- Work Experience and Institutions: Making the Links -- The Questioning Observer -- Connections and Contradictions -- Structures and Choices -- Economic, Political, and Ideological Processes -- Structure of the Book -- 2 What Is Happening to Jobs? -- Market Individualism -- Alienation and the Division of Labour -- A New Workplace and a New Worker? -- Hand, Heart, or Head: the Changing Character of Labour -- Subjectivity, Status, and Satisfaction -- Conclusions -- 3 Has it Become Harder to Balance Work and Family Life? -- Time and Life -- Modern Marriage and the Consequences of Work -- Doing Time at Home -- Is Technology the Solution? -- Is Outsourcing the Solution? -- Family-Friendly Workplaces and the Future of Work -- Conclusions -- 4 Is the Organizational Career an Outdated Concept? -- The Changing Career Contract -- Career as a Project of the Self -- Gendered Career Paths -- The Gendered Culture of Organizations -- Changing Modes of Management? -- Conclusions -- 5 How Is Performance Defined, Measured, and Rewarded? -- Rise and Operation of PMS -- Appraisal as Discipline -- Performance Management, Ritual, and Symbol -- Understanding Workplace Rules -- Negotiating Budgets and Rules -- Conclusions -- 6 Why Is Empowerment Hard to Achieve? -- How Does Power Work in Organizations? -- Mapping Participation -- Why Participation Matters -- Extent of Empowerment and Participation -- Conditions for Participation to Work -- Conclusions -- 7 Why Do Disasters Happen? -- Administrative Evil? -- Cultures of Fear -- Reliable Systems -- Understanding Technology -- Man-made Disasters -- Normal Accidents -- The Politics and Economics of Safety and Risk Assessments.

Conclusions -- 8 Is Decision-making a Rational Process? -- Social Group Processes -- 'Groupthink' -- Escalation as Group Psychology -- Escalation as a Failure of Rationality -- Persistence, Failure, and Rationality -- Learning -- Conclusions -- 9 How Are Markets Constructed? -- How Do Markets Work? -- Corporate Control in the USA and Britain: From Managerial Capitalism to Shareholder Value -- Option Pricing, Financial Instruments, and Corporate Scandals -- Effects of Market Restructuring in the USA -- Alternative Models of Capitalism -- Varieties of Capitalism -- Conclusions: Competing Logics, Not Competing Models -- 10 How Is Globalization Affecting Work? -- Globalization: Myth and Reality -- Contests over Effects of Globalization -- The Global Economy and the IMF -- The Regulation of Global Trade -- Globalization and Work in Organizations -- Conclusions -- 11 What Are the Opportunities and Responsibilities of Organizational Life? -- Capitalist Futures -- Corporate Social Responsibility: Business Issues -- Corporate Social Responsibility: Beyond the Stakeholder View -- Business Ethics -- References -- Index -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- Z.

This book is about the realities of working in organizations. It is aimed at the interested reader, it makes no assumptions about previous knowledge, and it is written in a lively and accessible style. Yet it is not superficial, and it takes the reader into key and complex issues about how organizations work such as what is happening to careers, the nature of power, and the impact of globalization. It also rests on a strong analytical approach that provides aconsistent perspective on these issues, and it is thus also suitable as a student text.

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Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, Michigan : ProQuest Ebook Central, 2022. Available via World Wide Web. Access may be limited to ProQuest Ebook Central affiliated libraries.