Critical Realist Applications in Organisations and Management Studies (Hardcover)--by S. Fleetwood [2004 Edition] ISBN: 9780415345095

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. Book Cover......Page 1 Half-Title......Page 2 Title......Page 6 Copyright......Page 7 Contents......Page 8 List of Illustrations......Page 10 Notes on Contributors......Page 12 Preface......Page 16 Editors’ introduction: Critical realist applications in organisation and management studies......Page 17 Foreword: Why critical realism?......Page 22 1. An ontology for organisation and management studies......Page 41 2. Brands, boundaries and bandwagons: A critical reflection on critical management studies......Page 67 3. Idealism and ideology: The Caterpillar controversy in critical accounting......Page 83 4. The ontology of work: Social relations and doing in the sphere of necessity......Page 100 5. Human resource management and realism: A morphogenetic approach......Page 121 6. Methodology for management and organisation studies: Some implications of critical realism......Page 143 7. Future directions in management science modelling: Critical realism and multimethodology......Page 167 8. Temporally embedded case comparison in industrial marketing research......Page 195 9. Theorising networks from a critical realist standpoint: The discovery of power and contextual issues within and outside 'networks'......Page 209 10. Competence theories......Page 230 11. Working in teams: Ethnographic evidence from two ‘high performance’ workplaces......Page 251 12. Humour and subversion in two call centres......Page 266 13. Tracing the effects of a hospital merger......Page 288 14. The moral management of nursing labour power: Conceptualising control and resistance......Page 309 15. I say tomato, you say tamato: Putting critical realism to work in the knowledge worker recruitment process......Page 325 Indes of names......Page 343 Index of subjects......Page 353 Critical realism has become increasingly important in the way organization and management is being studied. This 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 (anti-realist) social constructionism. This book 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 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, labor process theory, regional analysis and work and labor markets This book extends critical realism by showing how it has been applied to topics in critical management studies, accountancy, marketing, health care management, operations research, the nature of work, HRM, labour process and more