Hardback
Managing Intensity and Play at Work
Transient Relationships
9781782545958 Edward Elgar Publishing
In this thought-provoking book Niels åkerstrøm Andersen uses a unique combination of deconstruction, systems theory and discourse theory to critically discuss topics such as the management of feelings, partnerships as second order promises, and work–life balance as an immune defense against over-socialized employees. He assesses the parallels between layoffs in intimate organizations and modern professional divorce discourses, and explores the dichotomy of double-bounded management commanding both ‘do as I say’ and ‘be autonomous’. In so doing, Professor Andersen encourages the reader to look at relationships in the workplace in new ways.
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Critical Acclaim
Contents
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What does it mean to organize when the only established premise is that everything is transient? How is it possible for an organization to manage expectations based on the expectation of the unexpected?
In this thought-provoking book Niels Åkerstrøm Andersen uses a unique combination of deconstruction, systems theory and discourse theory to critically discuss topics such as the management of feelings, partnerships as second order promises, and work–life balance as an immune defense against over-socialized employees. He assesses the parallels between layoffs in intimate organizations and modern professional divorce discourses, and explores the dichotomy of double-bounded management commanding both ‘do as I say’ and ‘be autonomous’. In so doing, Professor Andersen encourages the reader to look at relationships in the workplace in new ways.
This unique book will prove invaluable for academics and students of human resource management, organizational behavior and critical management studies.
In this thought-provoking book Niels Åkerstrøm Andersen uses a unique combination of deconstruction, systems theory and discourse theory to critically discuss topics such as the management of feelings, partnerships as second order promises, and work–life balance as an immune defense against over-socialized employees. He assesses the parallels between layoffs in intimate organizations and modern professional divorce discourses, and explores the dichotomy of double-bounded management commanding both ‘do as I say’ and ‘be autonomous’. In so doing, Professor Andersen encourages the reader to look at relationships in the workplace in new ways.
This unique book will prove invaluable for academics and students of human resource management, organizational behavior and critical management studies.
Critical Acclaim
‘This book treats seriously one of the fundamental trends characterizing contemporary institutions – namely, the inability to establish a ground from which purpose and direction can be defined. It questions the core trope of “permanent change” and exposes its emptiness in a thorough and considered manner which enriches the way we question organizational orders.’
– Bogdan Costea, Lancaster University, UK
– Bogdan Costea, Lancaster University, UK
Contents
Contents: Introduction 1. Diagnostics of the Present and Second-Order Observation 2. Adapting to Adaptability: The Machine of Transience 3. From Membership to Self-enrolment: The Production of the Employee who Creates Herself in the Organizational Image 4. Management of Authentic Feelings: The Trembling Organization 5. Managing Interpenetration and Intensity 6. Loving Layoffs: The Intimate Strategies of the Break-up 7. Unbound Binding: From Employee Contracts to Partnerships 8. The Organization as a Nexus of Partnerships Conclusion: Transient Relationships – Towards the Intensity Machine Bibliography Index
