Christina Garsten - Böcker

This exciting new text engages with the issue of ethical dilemmas encountered in different organizations. Rather than exploring the definition of ethical conduct, this book focuses on the way in which the process of organization produces dilemmas of ethical behaviour. Using illustrative accounts from corporate settings as a basis, the book explores the conditions that lead to ethical dilemmas and the strategies organizations adopt to deal with these dilemmas or steer away from them. The book suggests that ethical dilemmas are often dealt with by directing attention away from the core problem, rather than engaging with and solving it.This is a fascinating text, which raises important questions and provides a deeper understanding of the dynamics of ethical processes. A company’s ethical behaviour is a major criterion by which the company, its products and services are judged and is therefore crucial to sound management in today’s organizations. Ethical Dilemmas in Management is essential reading for all students of business and management and ethics.

This exciting new text engages with the issue of ethical dilemmas encountered in different organizations. Rather than exploring the definition of ethical conduct, this book focuses on the way in which the process of organization produces dilemmas of ethical behaviour. Using illustrative accounts from corporate settings as a basis, the book explores the conditions that lead to ethical dilemmas and the strategies organizations adopt to deal with these dilemmas or steer away from them. The book suggests that ethical dilemmas are often dealt with by directing attention away from the core problem, rather than engaging with and solving it.This is a fascinating text, which raises important questions and provides a deeper understanding of the dynamics of ethical processes. A company’s ethical behaviour is a major criterion by which the company, its products and services are judged and is therefore crucial to sound management in today’s organizations. Ethical Dilemmas in Management is essential reading for all students of business and management and ethics.

Over the past two decades the use of flexible employment relations has increased in most developed countries. The growth of temporary agency work constitutes a significant component of this development. Organizations are now facing the challenges of managing a ‘blended workforce’, i.e. a workforce consisting of both direct hires and contractors. At a time when Europe, as well as the rest of the world, is facing enhanced global competition and a severe labor market crisis, an understanding of temporary employment practices becomes all the more acute. With the evolution of the use of agency work in the Western world over the past decade, the chapters in this volume show how a focus on the management and organization of temporary agency work can be helpful to see possibilities and pitfalls for the use of temporary employment in the wake of changed employment practices and challenges to labor market stability and welfare structures. Together, the new case studies presented in this volume provide a wide scope of analysis of the organization and management of temporary agency work, offering a much-needed contribution to the discussion of issues and priorities that guide and shape organizational practices today. Its particular uniqueness lies in the empirical richness and variety of local case studies and the way in which these are related to wider policy aims, ideological shifts, and the dynamics of organizational practice, with a particular focus on the organization and management of ‘blended workforces’.

Organisational Anthropology is a pioneering analysis of doing ethnographic fieldwork in different types of complex organisations, focusing on the process of initiating contact, establishing rapport and gaining the trust of an organisation's members.The thirteen contributors work from the premise that doing fieldwork in an organisation shares essential characteristics with fieldwork in more 'classical' anthropological environments, but that it also poses some particular challenges to the ethnographer, with barriers including the ideological or financial interests of the organisations, protection of resources and competition between organisations.A number of organisational contexts - including corporations, EU policy arenas, think tanks and the public sector - are explored in case studies from the UK, Japan, Norway, Sweden, Mexico and the USA.

Organisational Anthropology is a pioneering analysis of doing ethnographic fieldwork in different types of complex organisations, focusing on the process of initiating contact, establishing rapport and gaining the trust of an organisation's members.The thirteen contributors work from the premise that doing fieldwork in an organisation shares essential characteristics with fieldwork in more 'classical' anthropological environments, but that it also poses some particular challenges to the ethnographer, with barriers including the ideological or financial interests of the organisations, protection of resources and competition between organisations.A number of organisational contexts - including corporations, EU policy arenas, think tanks and the public sector - are explored in case studies from the UK, Japan, Norway, Sweden, Mexico and the USA.

In Discreet Power, Christina Garsten and Adrienne Sörbom undertake an ethnographic study of the World Economic Forum (WEF). Accessing one of the primary agenda-setting organizations of our day, they draw on interviews and participant observation to examine how the WEF wields its influence. They situate the WEF within an emerging system of "discretionary governance," in which actors craft ideas and entice formal authorities and top leaders in order to garner significant sway. Yet in spite of its image as a powerful, exclusive brain trust, the WEF has no formal mandate to implement its positions. It must convince others to advance chosen causes and enact suggestions, rendering its position quite fragile.Garsten and Sörbom argue that the WEF must be viewed relationally as a brokering organization that lives between the market and political spheres and that extends its reach through associated individuals and groups.They place the WEF in the context of a broader shift, arguing that while this type of governance opens up novel ways of dealing with urgent global problems, it challenges core democratic values.

Over the past two decades the use of flexible employment relations has increased in most developed countries. The growth of temporary agency work constitutes a significant component of this development. Organizations are now facing the challenges of managing a ‘blended workforce’, i.e. a workforce consisting of both direct hires and contractors. At a time when Europe, as well as the rest of the world, is facing enhanced global competition and a severe labor market crisis, an understanding of temporary employment practices becomes all the more acute. With the evolution of the use of agency work in the Western world over the past decade, the chapters in this volume show how a focus on the management and organization of temporary agency work can be helpful to see possibilities and pitfalls for the use of temporary employment in the wake of changed employment practices and challenges to labor market stability and welfare structures. Together, the new case studies presented in this volume provide a wide scope of analysis of the organization and management of temporary agency work, offering a much-needed contribution to the discussion of issues and priorities that guide and shape organizational practices today. Its particular uniqueness lies in the empirical richness and variety of local case studies and the way in which these are related to wider policy aims, ideological shifts, and the dynamics of organizational practice, with a particular focus on the organization and management of ‘blended workforces’.

Globalization of trade and organizational change increase the impact of markets in peoples' lives. This book is about how financial analysts, marketing people, corporate leaders and other actors in Western market economies perceive, model, and use markets.

Globalization of trade and organizational change increase the impact of markets in peoples' lives. This book is about how financial analysts, marketing people, corporate leaders and other actors in Western market economies perceive, model, and use markets.

In Discreet Power, Christina Garsten and Adrienne Sörbom undertake an ethnographic study of the World Economic Forum (WEF). Accessing one of the primary agenda-setting organizations of our day, they draw on interviews and participant observation to examine how the WEF wields its influence. They situate the WEF within an emerging system of "discretionary governance," in which actors craft ideas and entice formal authorities and top leaders in order to garner significant sway. Yet in spite of its image as a powerful, exclusive brain trust, the WEF has no formal mandate to implement its positions. It must convince others to advance chosen causes and enact suggestions, rendering its position quite fragile.Garsten and Sörbom argue that the WEF must be viewed relationally as a brokering organization that lives between the market and political spheres and that extends its reach through associated individuals and groups.They place the WEF in the context of a broader shift, arguing that while this type of governance opens up novel ways of dealing with urgent global problems, it challenges core democratic values.

The scholarship of Ulf Hannerz is characterized by its extraordinary breadth and visionary nature. He has contributed to the understanding of urban life and transnational networks, and the role of media, paradoxes of identity and new forms of community, suggesting to see culture in terms of flows rather than as bounded entities. Contributions honor Hannerz' legacy by addressing theoretical, epistemological, ethical and methodological challenges facing anthropological inquiry on topics from cultural diversity policies in Europe to transnational networks in Yemen, and from pottery and literature to multinational corporations.

In the aftermath of the global financial crisis, people who had never before had cause to worry about losing their jobs entered the ranks of the unemployed for the first time. In Sweden, the welfare state has been radically challenged and mass unemployment has become a reality in what used to be viewed as a model case for a full employment society.With an emphasis on Sweden in the context of transnational regulatory change, Makeshift Work in a Changing Labour Market discusses how the market mediates employment and moves on to explore the ways in which employees adjust to a new labor market. Focusing on the legibility, measurability and responsibility of jobseekers, the expert contributors to this book bring together an analysis of activation policy and new ways of organizing the mediation of work, with implications for the individual jobseeker.Students and researchers of labor market policy, the organization of markets and work and society both in Sweden and abroad will find this book to be of interest. Policy makers will find the empirical examples of policy processes among employees an extremely useful and insightful tool.

Power, Policy and Profit investigates the many ways in which corporate actors attempt to influence political activities. Through the intensified globalization of markets, the restructuring of welfare services and the accumulation of private capital, opportunities for corporate influence in politics affairs are shown to have multiplied. Bringing together different fields of global governance studies, this book addresses the rising political influence of corporate actors both nationally and internationally. Corporate influence on policy is now commonplace through lobbying, advocacy and campaign contributions; funding analysis and research; creating or adopting standards for social responsibility and shaping transparency guidelines. Key chapters show how corporations can now have leverage in broad political affairs: an activity central to the organization of markets.Power, Policy and Profit will be of great interest to students and academics of business and management, politics and governance studies. Policy professionals will find this a timely read on the complexities of corporate engagement in politics and governance.Contributors include: F. Aggeri, E. Boxenbaum, J.-Y. Caneill, M. Cartel, M.L. Djelic, H. Dumez, M. Flyverbom, C. Garsten, A. Jeunemaitre, A. Nyqvist, M. Perezts, X. Philippe, S. Picard, B. Rothstein, A. Sörbom, V. Steyer, R. Thedvall, A. Tyllström, D.A. Westbrook

This book argues that transparency is a concept that has gained increasing currency and favour as an organizing principle and administrative goal in recent years. Calls for transparency have been directed towards states, markets, corporations and national political processes as well as towards large institutions such as the European Union. Focusing on empirically rich case studies, the contributors explore the ideas and practices of transparency in different contexts, encouraging a discussion of the many facets of the term and its strengths, ambiguities and limitations. They aim to shed light on the powerful global discourse and practices contained in the concept, and to fill a gap in the literature since few attempts have, until now, been made to examine the actual content and practice of transparency. Also discussed are the complex negotiations through which it is determined what should be displayed and what should remain hidden, the uses of power and control, and the processes through which transparency is, or is not, achieved.This analysis of the concepts, models and metaphors that guide and shape organizational, social and aesthetical practices today will provide a much-needed contribution to the literature for academics, researchers and students focusing on these areas.

This book adds a multi-disciplinary organizational perspective to the theoretical analysis of political accountability and argues for a broadening of the conventional understanding of the concepts of responsibility and accountability.There is increasing pressure for accountability, driven by such factors as the globalization of markets, media reports of corporate misconduct, environmental destruction and the violation of human rights. In response, this book focuses on the development of accountability tools and techniques as well as on the organizational arrangements and political struggles behind such endeavours. This unique study theorizes the emerging accountability and corporate social responsibility movement at the transnational level. It focuses on an increasingly recognized aspect of transnational organizational life, which is often mentioned in recent literature, yet sparsely analysed.Organizing Transnational Accountability will be an important and invaluable read for researchers, policymakers and students of social anthropology, sociology, organization theory, political science and critical accounting at graduate levels and above.

Information and communication technologies have completely revolutionized our working practices. Career patterns, professional identities, speed of communication, time management, and mobility have been irrevocably changed in an amazingly short period. Drawing on worldwide case studies, this fascinating book explores these transformations and looks to what developments are in store for us in the future. Flexible hours, email, virtual meetings rooms, and working from home are all relatively new additions to our professional lives. The effects of these technological advances have been dramatic and far-reaching. Not only have they helped to connect organizations and institutions in developing countries to the rest of the world, but they also allow people to maintain extensive geographical networks with friends, families, and colleagues. The use of virtual reality and multimedia has had a huge impact on careers ranging from investment banking to molecular biology, and has brought fundamental changes to education and training, the generation of new ideas, and problem solving. This book investigates both the impact of information technology on working practices and, more complexly, how I.T. is bound up in social, political, and economic issues. How are power relations established and maintained through transnational networking? Can the Internet be used as a political tool to manipulate the masses? In what ways has digital technology changed the aesthetics and practices of the Euro-American dance world? What initiatives have been undertaken to ensure people arent excluded from the digital world and have they succeeded? Through answering these and many more questions, this groundbreaking book is an essential guide to the modern day world.

Information and communication technologies have completely revolutionized our working practices. Career patterns, professional identities, speed of communication, time management, and mobility have been irrevocably changed in an amazingly short period. Drawing on worldwide case studies, this fascinating book explores these transformations and looks to what developments are in store for us in the future. Flexible hours, email, virtual meetings rooms, and working from home are all relatively new additions to our professional lives. The effects of these technological advances have been dramatic and far-reaching. Not only have they helped to connect organizations and institutions in developing countries to the rest of the world, but they also allow people to maintain extensive geographical networks with friends, families, and colleagues. The use of virtual reality and multimedia has had a huge impact on careers ranging from investment banking to molecular biology, and has brought fundamental changes to education and training, the generation of new ideas, and problem solving. This book investigates both the impact of information technology on working practices and, more complexly, how I.T. is bound up in social, political, and economic issues. How are power relations established and maintained through transnational networking? Can the Internet be used as a political tool to manipulate the masses? In what ways has digital technology changed the aesthetics and practices of the Euro-American dance world? What initiatives have been undertaken to ensure people arent excluded from the digital world and have they succeeded? Through answering these and many more questions, this groundbreaking book is an essential guide to the modern day world.