Stewart R Clegg Cynthia Hardy.

Stewart R Clegg Cynthia Hardy, and Walter R Nord, ed Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1996 730 pp $11550

The editors of the Handbook of Organization Studies had sum of two units objectives in mind when they conceived this work One was fulfilling the traditional part that handbooks play, that of an atlas providing maps of a discipline's terrain. The other objective was initiating a conversation between traditional and emerging approaches to the application of mind of organizations. As a disciplinary atlas, the Handbook provides a wealth of useful information. Its three major sections correspond to (1) major theoretical themes within the organization sciences, (2) topics of instant interest, and (3) reflections in succession the discipline. The first section exhibits with a chapter by Michael Re outlining different theoretical perspectives upon organization studies and is followed through chapters providing overviews of four established theoretical perspectives: contingency theory (Lex Donaldson), organizational ecology (Joel Baum), organizational economics (Jay Barney and William Hesterly), and institutional theory (Pamela Tolbert and Lynn Zucker) It also contains three chapters in succession emerging approaches to organizational analysis: meso originals (Suzy Fox and Walter Nord), critical and postmodern approaches (Mats Alvesson and Stanley Deetz) and feminist approaches to the thought of organizations (Marta Calas and Linda Smircich).

The other section focuses on specific topics and contains chapters forward strategy (Richard Whipp), leadership (Alan Bryman), decision making (Susan Miller, David Hickson, and David Wilson), cognition (Ann Tenbrunsel Tiffany Galvin, Margaret Neale, and Max Bazerman), diverse identities (Stella Nkomo and Taylor Cox) information technology (Arthur Shulman), communication (Linda Putman, Nelson Phillips, and Pamela Chapman), technology (Karlene Roberts and Martha Grabowski), innovation (Deborah Dougherty), learning (Karl Weick and Frances Westley), organizations in the biosphere (Carolyn Egri and Peter Frost) and the rise of global business (Barbara Parker). The final section proposes essays and reviews on the nature of data in organizational research (Ralph Stablein), action research (Colin Eden and Chris Huxham), emotion (Stephen Fineman), aesthetics (Pasquale Gagliardi), time (John Hassard), power (Stewart Clegg and Cynthia Hardy), organization cultivation (Joanne Martin and Peter Frost) philosophy and sociology of the organization sciences (Gibson Burrell) and the part of theory in practice (Richard Mardsen and Barbara Townley).

I've named the chapters' authors for brace reasons. The first is acknowledgment, because it is impossible to review each chapter individually in a short review. The other is to show that there are the one and the other authors well known to U.S.-trained readers and many others that will be of recent origin Many of the "new" names are scholars in Canada, Great Britain, Europe Australia, and modern Zealand. This mix of authors gives the Handbook a distinctive flavor. plenteous of the cited literature is from journals published outside the United States, and ofttimes the treatment of topics is different than a U.S.-trained reader might look forward to Clegg and Hardy note:

While resisting generalization, the chapters in this work indicate that the development of organization studies has differed somewhat between North America and Europe . . In North America, Parsons' interpretation of Weber inferenceed in a view of bureaucracy as the ideal impressed sign of modern organization. . . Coupled with Taylorist traditions and Fordist practices, a functional approach to "management" theory flourished. In Europe in succession the other hand, a traditional interest in class pile created a space for a more radical interpretation of Weber: united that focused on the domination of constructions rules and procedures in new life, and also drew from Marx. . . (p. 689)

The meaning is one of seeing organizations from one side two distinct lenses, one mattered with the management and functioning of organizations (the mainstream U view) and another more transactioned with the power and social dynamics (a more European view). undivided can get an idea of in what way these lenses differ by comparing Barney and Hesterly's chapter onward organizational economics with Whipp's chapter forward strategy. While ostensibly dealing with the same general topic, they paint surpassingly different pictures of strategic management.

As a mid-career, falling-behind-in-the-literature reader, I set several chapters useful because they expos me to areas in which I have little background. Calas and Smircich's chapter in succession feminist approaches to organization studies, for example, reviews seven approaches to studying organizations from a feminist perspective. Each approach is illustrated using a everyday scenario, effectively highlighting their similarities and differences. Nkomo and Cox's chapter examines diversity in organizations from the perspective of diverse identities. They review for what cause identity is conceptualized in several bodies of literature, including social identity theory, embedded clump theory, and organizational demography, and outline implications for theorizing about and studying diversity in organizations. Gagliardi's discussion of the aesthetic side of organizations - organizations viewed from one side all the senses, not just cognitively - was cogitation provoking, as was Hassard's examination of the structuring of time in organizational analysis. Each of these chapters got me thinking about areas in which I didn't have earnestly prior exposure.