Damian O'Doherty – författare

“What an interesting agenda for this meeting.”“Sustainability is a priority for our company.”“We care deeply about our customers.”Let’s face it: We all lie. Sometimes to save face, to get out of a scrape or to protect someone’s feelings, and sometimes for more malicious reasons. Generally, however, we only expect people to lie under certain circumstances, and we expect our professional environments to be beacons of truthful and honest behaviour.Deceit, untruth and disinformation have become part and parcel of the everyday political agenda. World leaders and business magnates unabashedly lie and peddle misinformation, from climate change denialism to anti-vaccine propaganda. In Passionately Transforming Management: Lies, Professor Johan Alvehus recognizes that such things are not only going on at the grand political stage – instead arguing that the utility of lies, deception and manipulation can provide key lessons for anyone interested in leadership. The author delves into differing philosophical perspectives on the morality of lying, before examining the various ways in which falsehoods find their way into our modern workplaces. Ultimately, we must begin re-assessing our professional hierarchies with a new clarity by rejecting the notion of a leader as a morally superior concept automatically deserving of adulation.We need to recognize that lies and manipulation are fundamental elements of accomplishing things in organizations. Even before working life starts, its truthfulness is dubious – who doesn’t polish their CV to give a better impression? Bypassing formal structures, ensuring certain people are left out of decision processes, spreading non-factual ‘visions’ and lying to keep one’s position safe are all essential for the accomplished manager.Passionately Transforming Management: Lies provides students, scholars and managers with a concise and provocative guide to identifying, utilising and manipulating bullshit culture.

A critical exploration of how passion can create more effective organizations, Passionately Transforming Management restores curiosity and joy to management education. Climate change and the rapidly shifting balance of global geo-political power are changing the conditions within which organizations operate, and big data and AI are altering the criteria for a successful manager. By critically disrupting existing literature on management in education, O’Doherty and Hjorth reimagine a syllabus for management and organization by drawing on research that shows how successful businesses and entrepreneurs are those that have followed their private passions.Authored by leading members of the management and organization studies community with a wealth of experience, this concise book exposes the diverse potential of management in contributing to business success by foregrounding how passion – be it for science fiction, computer games, drum and bass, poetry or football – is vital to become a reflexive and effective manager. This is the ideal book for researchers in search of playful alternatives and advances in management theory and practice, original teachings in organization studies and critical management studies, and regenerative university course outlines and reading lists.

A critical exploration of how passion can create more effective organizations, Passionately Transforming Management restores curiosity and joy to management education. Climate change and the rapidly shifting balance of global geo-political power are changing the conditions within which organizations operate, and big data and AI are altering the criteria for a successful manager. By critically disrupting existing literature on management in education, O’Doherty and Hjorth reimagine a syllabus for management and organization by drawing on research that shows how successful businesses and entrepreneurs are those that have followed their private passions.Authored by leading members of the management and organization studies community with a wealth of experience, this concise book exposes the diverse potential of management in contributing to business success by foregrounding how passion – be it for science fiction, computer games, drum and bass, poetry or football – is vital to become a reflexive and effective manager. This is the ideal book for researchers in search of playful alternatives and advances in management theory and practice, original teachings in organization studies and critical management studies, and regenerative university course outlines and reading lists.

“What an interesting agenda for this meeting.”“Sustainability is a priority for our company.”“We care deeply about our customers.”Let’s face it: We all lie. Sometimes to save face, to get out of a scrape or to protect someone’s feelings, and sometimes for more malicious reasons. Generally, however, we only expect people to lie under certain circumstances, and we expect our professional environments to be beacons of truthful and honest behaviour.Deceit, untruth and disinformation have become part and parcel of the everyday political agenda. World leaders and business magnates unabashedly lie and peddle misinformation, from climate change denialism to anti-vaccine propaganda. In Passionately Transforming Management: Lies, Professor Johan Alvehus recognizes that such things are not only going on at the grand political stage – instead arguing that the utility of lies, deception and manipulation can provide key lessons for anyone interested in leadership. The author delves into differing philosophical perspectives on the morality of lying, before examining the various ways in which falsehoods find their way into our modern workplaces. Ultimately, we must begin re-assessing our professional hierarchies with a new clarity by rejecting the notion of a leader as a morally superior concept automatically deserving of adulation.We need to recognize that lies and manipulation are fundamental elements of accomplishing things in organizations. Even before working life starts, its truthfulness is dubious – who doesn’t polish their CV to give a better impression? Bypassing formal structures, ensuring certain people are left out of decision processes, spreading non-factual ‘visions’ and lying to keep one’s position safe are all essential for the accomplished manager.Passionately Transforming Management: Lies provides students, scholars and managers with a concise and provocative guide to identifying, utilising and manipulating bullshit culture.

The allure of crime is undeniable. From news headlines to true crime podcasts, crime has a way of entrapping our interest and imagination. An exploration of the lessons that managers can learn from organised crime, Passionately Transforming Management with Crime addresses how criminal enterprises engage with leadership and innovation, and how popular representations of crime affect our perceptions of management and organisation.Alf Rehn’s enticing text explores crime from a number of angles - historical, cultural and economic - to better understand the link between business and crime, and the lessons that can be shared. It looks to crime both as a source of inspiration for entrepreneurship and organisation, and as an influence on management through iconographies, legends and storytelling. The book also debunks common misconceptions about the business of crime, and touches on the dangers of romanticising criminal endeavours.Following an examination of criminals in history and fiction, Passionately Transforming Management with Crime progresses to discuss why we are attracted to crime, how crime mirrors legitimate businesses, and what we can learn from the criminal underworld, both real and fictional. Passionately Transforming Management with Crime offers a compelling and novel approach to management that provides valuable insights for practicing managers, professionals, advanced postgraduate students and scholars in Management, Critical Management Studies and Organisation Studies. Witty and engaging, this text is a fascinating read for those interested in discovering the management lessons to be learnt from Jean Genet, Biggie Smalls and Grand Theft Auto.

The allure of crime is undeniable. From news headlines to true crime podcasts, crime has a way of entrapping our interest and imagination. An exploration of the lessons that managers can learn from organised crime, Passionately Transforming Management with Crime addresses how criminal enterprises engage with leadership and innovation, and how popular representations of crime affect our perceptions of management and organisation.Alf Rehn’s enticing text explores crime from a number of angles - historical, cultural and economic - to better understand the link between business and crime, and the lessons that can be shared. It looks to crime both as a source of inspiration for entrepreneurship and organisation, and as an influence on management through iconographies, legends and storytelling. The book also debunks common misconceptions about the business of crime, and touches on the dangers of romanticising criminal endeavours.Following an examination of criminals in history and fiction, Passionately Transforming Management with Crime progresses to discuss why we are attracted to crime, how crime mirrors legitimate businesses, and what we can learn from the criminal underworld, both real and fictional. Passionately Transforming Management with Crime offers a compelling and novel approach to management that provides valuable insights for practicing managers, professionals, advanced postgraduate students and scholars in Management, Critical Management Studies and Organisation Studies. Witty and engaging, this text is a fascinating read for those interested in discovering the management lessons to be learnt from Jean Genet, Biggie Smalls and Grand Theft Auto.

For years, the menopause was rarely spoken about - those who experienced it were often encouraged to do so quietly, without drawing attention to it. Whilst contemporary discussions have become more open around the subject, and gender-based medicine has made strides in its treatment, in mainstream discourse menopause is still addressed as a problem to be solved. This is often the case in the workplace, with ‘menopause initiatives’ being introduced in response to rising calls for action. But is the menopause even something that can be ‘managed’ by corporations, and does it even need to be?Passionately Transforming Management with Menopause refutes the assumption that better management of the menopause is a panacea for companies and employees. Rather, it repositions the basis of the discussion to explore how lived experiences of the menopause can transform and expand traditional parameters of management.Drawing on lived experiences from both their own lives and from those close to them, the authors address the reality of menopause both within and beyond the workplace. Using data generated from these discussions, the book investigates both the menopause management practices implemented throughout various sectors, and the holistic lives of those undergoing this transitional phase.Passionately Transforming Management with Menopause provides students, scholars and managers with an empowering and provocative guide to understanding and repurposing the topic of menopause in the workplace.

For years, the menopause was rarely spoken about - those who experienced it were often encouraged to do so quietly, without drawing attention to it. Whilst contemporary discussions have become more open around the subject, and gender-based medicine has made strides in its treatment, in mainstream discourse menopause is still addressed as a problem to be solved. This is often the case in the workplace, with ‘menopause initiatives’ being introduced in response to rising calls for action. But is the menopause even something that can be ‘managed’ by corporations, and does it even need to be?Passionately Transforming Management with Menopause refutes the assumption that better management of the menopause is a panacea for companies and employees. Rather, it repositions the basis of the discussion to explore how lived experiences of the menopause can transform and expand traditional parameters of management.Drawing on lived experiences from both their own lives and from those close to them, the authors address the reality of menopause both within and beyond the workplace. Using data generated from these discussions, the book investigates both the menopause management practices implemented throughout various sectors, and the holistic lives of those undergoing this transitional phase.Passionately Transforming Management with Menopause provides students, scholars and managers with an empowering and provocative guide to understanding and repurposing the topic of menopause in the workplace.

Climate – Chaos – Trump – Brexit – Terror: the apocalypse looms large in the Zeitgeist. Could and should this not provide the fulcrum for renewing the imaginative range of organization studies? In this volume, we bring together scholars who have taken Roberto Bolaño’s visionary novel 2666 as a starting point for reflections, provocations, and challenges to established imaginaries. How can we cultivate and develop our attention to the violent organization of the world without reproducing more violence? Contributors to this edited volume take on this challenge as they seek to break through the various blind spots in the discipline of management and organization studies. Bolaño’s work opens up hidden and fantastic dimensions in organization and provides alternative spaces and associations for new and bold organizational thinking. Variously disturbing, self-destructive, and abyssal, these essays reflect “that something that terrifies us all” as Bolaño wrote, “that something that cows and spurs us on”. We call this something Organization 2666.