Critical Realist Applications in Organisation and Management Studies

Critical realism has become increasingly important in the way organization and management is studied. This innovative book argues for an alternative to the prevailing ontology, and shows how positivism and its empirical realist ontology can be abandoned without having to accept strong social constructionism. Critical Realist Applications in Organisation and Management Studies applies critical realism in four ways. First, in the removal of meta-theoretical obstacles that hinder the development of fruitful theoretical and empirical work. Second and third, as a meta-theoretical tool with which to develop appropriate methodological and theoretical frameworks which can then be used to inform appropriate empirical work, and finally, all of this is applied across a broad range of subject areas including critical management studies, accountancy, marketing, health care management, operations research, the nature of work, human resource management, labour process theory, regional analysis, and work and labour market studies. Ideal for postgraduates and professionals, this key book will be a valuable resource across a wide range of subjects.

Steve Fleetwood is a senior lecturer in the department of Organisations, Work and Technology at Lancaster University Management School where he teaches Employment Relations and HRM. His publications include Hayek's Political Economy,The Socio Economics of Order (1995); Critical Realism in Economics: Development and Debate (1999); Realist Perspectives on Organisation and Management (2000) and Critical Realism and Marxism (2002). Stephen Ackroyd is Professor of Organisational Analysis and Head of the Department of Organisation, Work and Technology at Lancaster University Management School. His books include Organisational Misbehaviour (1999)and The Organization of Business (2002).

Part 1: Meta-Theory: Critique and Development 1. An Ontology for Organisation and Management Studies 2. Brands, Boundaries and Bandwagons: A Critical Reflection on Critical Management Studies 3. Idealism and Ideology: The Caterpillar Controversy in Critical Accounting Research 4. The Ontology Of Work: Social Relations and Doing in the Sphere of Necessity 5. Human Resource Management and Realism: A Morphogenetic Approach Part 2: Methodology: Critique and development 6. Methodology for Management and Organisation Studies: Some Implications of Critical Realism 7. Future Directions in Operations Research Modelling: Critical Realism and Multimethodology 8. Temporally Embedded Case Comparison In Industrial Marketing Research 9. Theorizing Networks From A Critical Realist Standpoint: The Discovery of Power and Contextual Issues Within and Outside 'Networks' 10. Competence Theories and their Methodological Implications Part 3: Substantive Contributions 11. Working in Teams: Ethnographic Evidence on the High Commitment Workplace 12. Humour and Subversion in Two Call Centres 13. Tracing the Effects of a Hospital Merger 14. The Moral Management of Nursing Labour Power: Conceptualising Control and Resistance 15. I Say Tomato, You Say Tamato: Putting Critical Realism to Work in Labour Market Recruitment Processes