Monika Kostera – författare

Archetypes are common patterns containing hidden images of human motivations, offering inspiration and awakening imagination. This book is a collection of such tales, connected to twelve organizational archetypes, where each is illustrated by more general theoretical reflections, current management and organization theory literature, as well as practical examples. Monika Kostera proposes an imagery and language for self-management and self-organization for non-corporate use including entrepreneurs and multipurpose NGOs.

Stories and examples from and of, contemporary organizations in different contexts will prove insightful to students, academics and researchers of management, business, sociology and economics. Social entrepreneurs and NGO activists will also find plenty of invaluable information in this inspirational study.

This book is a reaction to the reductionist and exploitative ideas dominating the mainstream contemporary management discourse and practice, and an attempt to broaden the horizons of possibility for both managers and organization scholars. It brings together the scholarly fields of humanistic management and organizational aesthetics, where the former brings in the unshakeable focus on the human condition and concern for dignity, emancipation, and the common good, while the latter promotes reflection, openness, and appreciation for irreducible complexity of existence. It is a journey towards wholeness undertaken by a collective of management and organization theorists, philosophers, artists, and art curators.

Reading this book’s contributions can help both academics and practitioners work towards building organizational practices aimed at (re)acquiring wholeness by developing aesthetic awareness allowing for more profound understandings of performativity, insights into the dynamics of power, appreciation of ambiguity and ambivalence, and a much needed grasp of complexity. The varied ways of engaging with art explored by the authors promote imaginative insights into and reflection on the beauty and vicissitudes of organizing, of management knowledge and collective expression.

It will be of interest to researchers, academics, practitioners, and students in the fields of organizational theory and practice, business and management history, human resource management, and culture management.

This book is a reaction to the reductionist and exploitative ideas dominating the mainstream contemporary management discourse and practice, and an attempt to broaden the horizons of possibility for both managers and organization scholars. It brings together the scholarly fields of humanistic management and organizational aesthetics, where the former brings in the unshakeable focus on the human condition and concern for dignity, emancipation, and the common good, while the latter promotes reflection, openness, and appreciation for irreducible complexity of existence. It is a journey towards wholeness undertaken by a collective of management and organization theorists, philosophers, artists, and art curators.

Reading this book’s contributions can help both academics and practitioners work towards building organizational practices aimed at (re)acquiring wholeness by developing aesthetic awareness allowing for more profound understandings of performativity, insights into the dynamics of power, appreciation of ambiguity and ambivalence, and a much needed grasp of complexity. The varied ways of engaging with art explored by the authors promote imaginative insights into and reflection on the beauty and vicissitudes of organizing, of management knowledge and collective expression.

It will be of interest to researchers, academics, practitioners, and students in the fields of organizational theory and practice, business and management history, human resource management, and culture management.

Drawing on diverse experiences of international and interdisciplinary scholars, How to do Social Science that Matters presents methodology as a result of choices and stances related to values, context, and research interests. Each chapter focuses on one particular perspective, considering relationships, systemic inequalities, mutual meanings, and heterodoxy. A vast range of techniques are employed to conceptualise meaningful research methods, from ethnographies to poetry. Ultimately, this How To guide foregrounds the importance of impactful social science in peacemaking and building understanding.

Centring a truly innovative perspective on social science analysis, this book is a crucial resource for students and scholars of management, organisation studies and research methods. It also appeals to those across the social sciences who wish to learn more about crafting purposeful and sensitive methodology.

Over the past ten to fifteen years there has been an increasing interest in emotion in organizations, in diversity, ethics, care and the ubiquitous pursuit of quality. These concerns, however, have consistently been reduced to issues of management and regulation. There is now a growing need to confront issues related to the dehumanization of organizations. This book brings these issues together, presenting an original construction of the organization via an emphasis on the (m)other.This book is not a feminist tract, nor is it primarily about the experiences of women in organizations. It rather argues that conventional representations of the organization are patriarchal, masculine, directed by the animus and that such representations reduce the notion of ''organization'' to abstract relationships, rational actions and purposive behaviour. This challenging book will be of essential interest to all critical management theorists. With its innovative approach, it will also appeal to students, teachers, and all those looking for an approach to management that does justice to the complexity, ambivalence and chaos of the world of organizing.

Over the past ten to fifteen years there has been an increasing interest in emotion in organizations, in diversity, ethics, care and the ubiquitous pursuit of quality. These concerns, however, have consistently been reduced to issues of management and regulation. There is now a growing need to confront issues related to the dehumanization of organizations. This book brings these issues together, presenting an original construction of the organization via an emphasis on the (m)other.This book is not a feminist tract, nor is it primarily about the experiences of women in organizations. It rather argues that conventional representations of the organization are patriarchal, masculine, directed by the animus and that such representations reduce the notion of ''organization'' to abstract relationships, rational actions and purposive behaviour. This challenging book will be of essential interest to all critical management theorists. With its innovative approach, it will also appeal to students, teachers, and all those looking for an approach to management that does justice to the complexity, ambivalence and chaos of the world of organizing.

It can be said that our times are characterized both by the omnipresence of organizations and by the destabilization of organized social life, caused by the erosion of its structural and moral foundations such as long-term employment, social trust or an actual observance of the proclaimed codes of ethics. At the same time there is a huge and growing potential for organized change due to the amount of students and graduates of different types of management studies and programmes all over the world.

The role of the state may become atrophied and corporations seem all too eager to seize ever more power while renouncing responsibility towards the environment and the employees, but a huge and unprecedented number of people from all walks of life, all social classes and all countries now have the qualifications to take over the responsibility for social organizations.

The objective of Occupy Management: Inspirations and Ideas for Self-Organization and Self-Management is to make it evident to the student why and how he or she can manage without becoming part of corporate power structures. Aimed at postgraduate students studying organizational and management theory as well as social entrepreneurship, this book is not a simple repetition of essential knowledge in these areas, but a re-direction of such knowledge towards self-management and self-organization.