The Work of Managers: Towards a Practice Theory of Management

Managers are significant actors in contemporary organizations and yet there is very little deep-level analysis of what managers do, and how they understand their managerial selves and social situations. Instead of evaluating management techniques according to their internal logic and systematic qualities, this book advances the "practice perspective," using behavior and activities of successful, experienced, and skilled managers as the primary data for theorizing good management.

In this book, academics review classic literature on managerial work, discuss methodological and theoretical approaches, and present empirical studies on various kinds of managers at different levels of organizations, in different roles, and different sectors, from construction site managers and CEOs of large companies to university vice chancellors and front-line health care managers.

It makes the case for studies of managerial work that look beyond the rational and ordered world to the challenges presented by, inter alia, work and information overload, complexity, performance pressures, unintended consequences, and irreconcilable expectations.

Table of Contents

Part One: Framework
1. Overcoming the Rationalist Fallacy in Management Research, Stefan Tengblad
2. Management in Practice: Overview of Classic Studies on Managerial Work, Stefan Tengblad and Ola Edvin Vie

Part Two: A Practice Perspective on Leadership and Managerial Work
3. Well Then - What Now? An Everyday Approach to Managerial Leadership?, Ingalill Holmberg and Mats Tyrstrup
4. Managerial Leadership: Identities, Processes, and Interactions, Stefan Sveningsson, Johan Alvehus and Mats Alvesson
5. Multi-framing as a Tool in Top Management Teams, Gary Kokk, Sten Jonsson and Airi Rovio-Johansson

Part Three: Operational Managerial Work
6. Work Activities and Stress Among Managers in Health Care, Rebecka Arman, Ewa Wikstrom, Ellinor Tengelin and Lotta Dellve
7. Leadership as Muddling Through: Site Managers in the Construction Industry, Alexander Styhre
8. R&D Managers Leading Knowledge Workers with Care, Ola Edvin Vie

Part Four: Administrative Managerial Work
9. Managers at the Municipal Top, Anna Cregard and Rolf Solli
10. The Swedish Municipality Director: A Managerial Function between Politics and Administration, Leif Jonsson
11. Leaders of Modern Universities: Primi Inter Pares or Chief Executive Officers?, Lars Engwall and Carin Eriksson Lindvall
12. Managerial Work at the Top: Tracing Changes in Work Practices and Efforts Towards Theory Development, Stefan Tengblad

Part Five: Managerial Work in Small Businesses
13. Managerial Behaviour in Small Firms: Does it Matter What Managers Do?, Henrik Floren and Joakim Tell
14. The Duality of Strategic Managerial Work in SMEs: A Structuration Perspective, Anders Nilsson, Mats Westerberg and Einar Hackner
15. Managerial Practices in Family Owned Firms: Strategizing Actors, their Arenas and their Emotions, Ethel Brundin and Leif Melin

Part Six: The Way Forward
16. Refining Shadowing Methods for Studying Managerial Work, Rebecka Arman, Ola Edvin Vie and Havard Asvoll
17. Bridging the Management Theory and Practice Gap, Rob B. Briner. Lars Engwall, Tina L. Juillerat, Henry Mintzberg, Frederick P. Morgeson, Michael G. Pratt and Stefan Tengblad
18. Conclusion and the Way Forward: Towards a Practice Theory of Management, Stefan Tengblad

352 pages, Hardcover

Po otrzymaniu zamówienia poinformujemy,
czy wybrany tytuł polskojęzyczny lub anglojęzyczny jest aktualnie na półce księgarni.

THE WORK OF MANAGERS: TOWARDS A PRCTICE THEORY OF MANAGEMENT

TENGBLAD S.

The Work of Managers: Towards a Practice Theory of Management

It makes the case for studies of managerial work that look beyond the rational and ordered world to the challenges presented by, inter alia, work and information overload, complexity, performance pressures, unintended consequences, and irreconcilable expectations.