Doing Critical Management Research

Mats Alvesson · Stanley Deetz

Sep 1999 · SAGE

About this ebook

`Alvesson and Deetz rehearse the arguments against neo-positivism and quantitative research very effectively... also make the important distinction between qualitative work in general and critical qualitative work in particular. The arguments here feel fresh and engaged, helped along by numerous illustrations and examples from particular research studies. ...a welcome antidote to the majority of methodology books, especially in a climate where research - especially at doctoral level- is increasingly prone to standardization. The value of the book in this regard cannot be overestimated, because it draws together insights and arguments. ...expect it to be widely read and cited, and to remain the standard text on critical management research practice for a good many years to come. This is an excellent text which combines a very impressive coverage of the literature while showing great care and thought in exposition′ - Management Learning

Providing a detailed discussion of the practice of doing critical research in organizations, utilizing both qualitative research processes and critical theories of organizations, this textbook will be essential for all those involved in interpreting and researching contemporary institutions and organizations. This volume gives an authoritative and insightful framework for navigating critical theories and methods across the social sciences, but in particular in relation to the study of corporate organizations.

About the author

Mats Alvesson holds a chair in the Business Administration department at Lund University in Sweden and is also part-time professor at University of Queensland Business School and at Case Business School, London. He has done extensive research and published widely in the areas of qualitative and reflexive methodology, critical theory, organizational culture, knowledge work, identity in organizations, gender, organizational change, management consultancy etc. He has published 30 books, most with leading publishers and hundreds of articles, many of which are widely cited and used on higher levels in university education. Stanley Deetz, Ph.D., is Professor Emeritus and a President's Teaching Scholar at the University of Colorado at Boulder. His research and professional practice has focused organizational culture and change, micro-practices of power in organizations, and designing interaction processes for collaborative decision-making. Deetz is author/co-author of over 150 scholarly essays and several books including Leading Organizations through Transitions, Doing Critical Management Research, Managing Interpersonal Communication, Transforming Communication-Transforming Business, and Democracy in an Age of Corporate Colonization. He was a Senior Fulbright Scholar and is a National Communication Association Distinguished Scholar and an International Communication Association Past-President and Fellow. He has lectured widely giving well over one hundred visiting scholar and invited lectures in twenty-four countries.