Monika Kostera – författare

Is the University as we know it dead? Monika Kostera thinks not, but across the globe universities are under attack, be it by external forces or from within. Will they survive? Our civilisation requires that they must: planetary survival and sustainability depend on them. This book provides vital resources to give us all - professional academics, students, and university administrators - hope that universities will emerge renewed out of the current crisis. As this inspiring work shows, the practice of academic virtues can enable us to cultivate the awareness of the common good that academia serves: the preservation and development of humanity's potential of knowledge. Drawing on a rich variety of ideas, theories, empirical cases, real and fictitious stories, as well as examples and images from art and literature, Monika Kostera demonstrates the splendid complexity of academic ecosystems. It is through looking for hope for the university that we find hope for society and the planet. In suggesting tangible steps for restoring a sense of meaning to academic work and the collegial community worldwide, The University of Hope shows us a path out of the darkness.

The second volume in a series of three focuses on organizational virtues and vices, as well as abilities of organizations, and legendary organizations that have become mythical in themselves. These narratives are presented as organizational sagas to reveal an archetypal dimension of organizing and organizations.

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.

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.

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.

Widely known as a leading intellectual, Zygmunt Bauman’s thinking is often categorized as sociology or philosophy. But his work has been hugely influential in other fields as well, not least within organization studies. From increasing management control and growing standardization of work activities, to the increase in uncertainty and insecurity experienced by contemporary workers, organizations themselves are becoming ever more ephemeral entities. Bauman’s themes: globalization, liquid modernity and postmodern ethics are arguably fundamental to contemporary notions of organization and management and his thinking has never been more relevant.However, despite the obvious and continuing influence of Bauman’s ideas on business studies, there has been no comprehensive attempt to chart his impact on organization theory. In this innovative and insightful collection, an international selection of leading management scholars explore key topics in current organizational discourse, including networked organizations, control and ambiguity, technologies, work and responsibility, extending Bauman’s liquid modernity to the "liquid organization".The book will be essential reading for scholars and academics and students in management and organizational theory, and also sociology, managing culture and organizational ethnography.

This book reflects on organizations through archetypical tales-stories particularly resonant with deep meanings present in culture and the soul. 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.

Widely known as a leading intellectual, Zygmunt Bauman’s thinking is often categorized as sociology or philosophy. But his work has been hugely influential in other fields as well, not least within organization studies. From increasing management control and growing standardization of work activities, to the increase in uncertainty and insecurity experienced by contemporary workers, organizations themselves are becoming ever more ephemeral entities. Bauman’s themes: globalization, liquid modernity and postmodern ethics are arguably fundamental to contemporary notions of organization and management and his thinking has never been more relevant.However, despite the obvious and continuing influence of Bauman’s ideas on business studies, there has been no comprehensive attempt to chart his impact on organization theory. In this innovative and insightful collection, an international selection of leading management scholars explore key topics in current organizational discourse, including networked organizations, control and ambiguity, technologies, work and responsibility, extending Bauman’s liquid modernity to the "liquid organization".The book will be essential reading for scholars and academics and students in management and organizational theory, and also sociology, managing culture and organizational ethnography.

This creative book discusses the value of poetry within the field of management and organization studies. It examines how researchers can understand poetry and incorporate it into their work, exploring ways that poetry encourages readers to defy the status quo and engage in activism.Bringing together two supposedly contrary concepts, poetry and organization, the authors highlight sensorial and feminist approaches to organization rooted in affect and embodiment. Drawing on their unique experiences, authors share their own poems and outline how these relate to organization, illustrating a poem’s capacity to be either politically inclusionary or exclusionary. Combining narrative chapters with poems, they demonstrate how the organizational dimensions of renowned poetry reflect contemporary management practices. The book invites readers to consider what constitutes ‘good’ management, using poetry to destabilize existing paradigms concerning the social and the organized. Poetry and Organizing is an invigorating read for students and academics in business studies, organization studies and literature. Its insights into working landscapes, enriched by the authors diverse international backgrounds, expertise and perspectives, will also greatly benefit researchers and practitioners in business management.

This holistic How to guide provides practical advice on conducting meaningful research within the social sciences, focusing on practices which are sensitive and bespoke. Mapping out the field and inviting further exploration, its insights reflect lessons from a wide variety of social science research projects, all of which have crucial epistemological and methodological consequences.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.

Responding to the trend of formulaic writing in the academic community, How To Write Differently offers a refreshing approach to academic writing in a practical format.The book explores how, in order to write differently, an author needs to embrace complexity and alterity and write to be read. Highlighting the importance of bringing joy and enlightenment to readers rather than simply writing for the metrics, experienced contributors delve into the significance of poetry and idiom, writing from the heart and what to write about. Chapters also consider key practicalities such as, how to make an argument and not slide into reductionism? How to engage with literature without being dull and formulaic? How to describe important issues such as empirical research and insights? Finally, the book sheds light on the review process, where to publish, reflective referencing and how to revise your writing.Aiming to inspire academic writers and readers, while offering practical guidance, How to Write Differently will be a valuable resource for business and management researchers and students seeking to write in a new way.

Offering a practical guide on How to be an Ethnographer, this book will be a valuable resource for advanced students and early career researchers of organization studies, anthropology and sociology. It will also be a useful introduction to scholars exploring ethnography as a new research method. This book explores the aims, main methods, and ethical and methodological standards of ethnography. Placing human beings at the centre, it showcases why ethnography is a valuable method of research. Highlighting the importance of ethnographic engagement as a means to learn about different ways of being human, the book employs a range of case studies from researchers at all career stages to provide examples of different methods used in research projects. Going beyond tools and techniques, the authors discuss moral and methodological principles as well as community related modes that are important in conducting ethnography.

In this book, Monika Kostera discusses management education, examining its underpinning ideas and practical implications in context. She explores how current key educational objectives can be redirected towards robust ecosystemic and humanistic agendas rather than serving as ideology supporting managerial systems.Adopting an innovative approach to the goals of business education, Kostera draws on existing knowledge to work towards much needed change in the face of global issues such as climate change, inequality, and discrimination. Presenting concrete ideas and signposts on how to teach management to extend learning outcomes into actionable values, this How to guide also includes thought experiments and case studies to demonstrate how these principles may work in practice. Kostera recognizes that a change of perspective is required in management education, moving from a purely business standpoint against the background of rapidly deteriorating global institutions to a more sustainable solution.How to Teach Management Differently is an enlightening read for scholars and students of management education. It is also a beneficial resource for higher education policymakers and readers interested in business and management education.

As part of the series Routledge Focus on Women Writers in Management and Organization Studies, this volume aims to explore the writing of organization in the sense of how meaning is inscribed into the social context by organizational practices. Across Central and Eastern Europe, women activists have long been at the forefront of transformative change, navigating the complex landscapes of business, politics, and civil society to redefine leadership on their own terms. This book is to bring their stories to light, showcasing the diverse ways in which women have shaped their organizations, communities, and nations.This volume moves beyond traditional, often masculine and men-coded notions of activism, revealing how women in the region have shaped alternative paths through cooperation, resilience, and visionary organizing. Authors showcase the lives and work of women who played central roles in shaping organizations and politics across the region. From corporate boardrooms to grassroots initiatives, from public institutions to political movements, these women have built networks of support, reimagined governance, and challenged exclusionary structures. Through a series of compelling narratives, this book offers a fresh perspective on activism, one that centers on collective action, social impact, and community-building.

Women Leaders in Central and Eastern Europe: Organizing, Politics, and the Path to Change is a groundbreaking edited volume that redefines leadership through the lens of women’s experiences across a historically and culturally unique region. Drawing on rich, qualitative narratives, the book explores how women have led transformation in politics, public institutions, and organizational life in Central and Eastern Europe. This concise and compelling volume features case studies of individual women leaders, each situated within their country’s socio-political context. Highlighting leadership as a practice of meaning-making and collective action, the book challenges dominant Western models centered on hierarchy and individualism. Instead, it offers inspiring accounts of resilience, cooperation, and visionary organizing. Each chapter includes analysis and reflections that bridge personal stories with wider themes in organization and gender studies. Ideal for researchers, scholars, students, and practitioners in organization studies, management, leadership, gender studies, and Central and Eastern European studies, this book is a vital contribution to the global conversation on inclusive and alternative leadership models. It also serves as an invaluable resource for educators and professionals seeking diverse perspectives on organizing and governance.

This important book focuses on the role of human dignity, its protection and promotion in the context of organization and Humanistic Management.

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.

The second volume in a series of three focuses on organizational virtues and vices, as well as abilities of organizations, and legendary organizations that have become mythical in themselves. These narratives are presented as organizational sagas to reveal an archetypal dimension of organizing and organizations.

This important book focuses on the role of human dignity, its protection and promotion in the context of organization and Humanistic Management.

The Three Faces of Leadership takes readers inside the minds of CEOs who have been celebrated by the Harvard Business Review over the last decade of the twentieth century. Drawing on interviews with these famous CEOs, Mary Jo Hatch, Monika Kostera and Andrzej K. Kozminski demonstrate how business leaders today use aesthetics, specifically storytelling, dramatizing and mythmaking, to lead their companies successfully. They look at how they inspire organizations through their creativity, virtue and faith, and thus show the faces of the artist and priest alongside the technical and rational face of the manager. The Three Faces of Leadership features clear and accessible explanations of the aesthetic philosophy of management: as applied to the concepts of creativity, imagination, courage, virtue, inspiration, faith and ethics. It presents techniques for developing these qualities as an essential part of leadership; together with the capacity to communicate them to others. Aesthetic leadership practices are linked to organizational culture, change, vision, values and identity. In this way, the book encourages students and executives to align the creative and spiritual aspects of business with their technical training and practice.

The Three Faces of Leadership takes readers inside the minds of CEOs who have been celebrated by the Harvard Business Review over the last decade of the twentieth century. Drawing on interviews with these famous CEOs, Mary Jo Hatch, Monika Kostera and Andrzej K. Kozminski demonstrate how business leaders today use aesthetics, specifically storytelling, dramatizing and mythmaking, to lead their companies successfully. They look at how they inspire organizations through their creativity, virtue and faith, and thus show the faces of the artist and priest alongside the technical and rational face of the manager. The Three Faces of Leadership features clear and accessible explanations of the aesthetic philosophy of management: as applied to the concepts of creativity, imagination, courage, virtue, inspiration, faith and ethics. It presents techniques for developing these qualities as an essential part of leadership; together with the capacity to communicate them to others. Aesthetic leadership practices are linked to organizational culture, change, vision, values and identity. In this way, the book encourages students and executives to align the creative and spiritual aspects of business with their technical training and practice.

Management has been one of the driving forces of the last century, indeed an idea and a language that colonized most other institutions, areas of human activity and walks of life, even those that had until recently been regarded as completely unmanageable, such as art, academia and creativity. Some it supported and others it destroyed, but there are few areas in modern societies that have been untouched by it.What is the meaning of management now almost omnipresent and all-powerful in our current bleak times, in our current state of 'interregnum' that is characterized by an increasing sense of insecurity and hopelessness, a time when, paradoxically, the seemingly omnipotent force of management does not seem to work? Does it have a role to play today and in the future? What can it become and whom should it serve when the interregnum is over and a new, hopefully more humane, system begins to dawn?These are some of the questions explored in this timely new book by Zygmunt Bauman, one of the greatest thinkers of our times, architect and Urban Studies professor Irena Bauman, and two organization and management scholars, Jerzy Kociatkiewicz and Monika Kostera.

Management has been one of the driving forces of the last century, indeed an idea and a language that colonized most other institutions, areas of human activity and walks of life, even those that had until recently been regarded as completely unmanageable, such as art, academia and creativity. Some it supported and others it destroyed, but there are few areas in modern societies that have been untouched by it.What is the meaning of management now almost omnipresent and all-powerful in our current bleak times, in our current state of 'interregnum' that is characterized by an increasing sense of insecurity and hopelessness, a time when, paradoxically, the seemingly omnipotent force of management does not seem to work? Does it have a role to play today and in the future? What can it become and whom should it serve when the interregnum is over and a new, hopefully more humane, system begins to dawn?These are some of the questions explored in this timely new book by Zygmunt Bauman, one of the greatest thinkers of our times, architect and Urban Studies professor Irena Bauman, and two organization and management scholars, Jerzy Kociatkiewicz and Monika Kostera.

This book reflects on organizations through archetypical tales-stories particularly resonant with deep meanings present in culture and the soul. 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.

Ethnography is at the heart of what researchers in management and organization studies do. This crucial book offers a robust and original overview of ‘’doing’’ organizational ethnography, guiding readers through the essential qualitative methods for the study of organizations.Preparing students to enter the field with a confident outlook and a toolkit of skills, chapters present a series of action-learning projects to arm readers with practical exercises that will hone the abilities of the organizational ethnographer. Expert contributors offer crucial outlines into a variety of essential skills, including shadowing, autoethnography, interviews, media analysis and storytelling. The book concludes with a chapter by a doctoral student, providing unique insights into the development of the ethnographic understanding of organizational realities.Featuring useful exercises and an accessible style, this book is critical reading for PhD and Masters students in business administration and organizational theory, as well as social science students undertaking qualitative methodology programmes. It will also be useful for students on MBA courses in need of a humanistic approach to organizations.

Crumbling social institutions, disintegrating structures, and a profound sense of uncertainty are the signs of our time, stemming from a situation in which traditional systems are dying but the new cannot yet be born. In this timely book, this contemporary crisis is explored and illuminated, providing narratives that suggest how the notion of hope can be leveraged to create powerful methods of organizing for the future, in communities, workplaces and businesses.In response to the increasing attention being paid to the shocking seriousness of the current state of the world, this innovative book offers a variety of ways of bringing hope into a situation otherwise defined by hopelessness, following a tradition of radical dissent by public intellectuals such as Zygmunt Bauman and Vaclav Havel. Chapters first consider theoretical and philosophical perspectives on hopeful organizing, followed by both empirical discussions about achieving change and more imaginative narratives of alternative and utopian futures, including an exploration of the differing roles of work, creativity, idealism, inclusivity and activism.Organizing Hope will be a critical and thought-provoking read for researchers and students of organization theory and sociology, as well as other social sciences. Politicians, policy makers and other decision makers in government will also find the book insightful and useful.Contributors include: G. Cairns, C. Ciupke, S. Clegg, M. Cwikla, D. Ericsson, A. Góral, M. Izak, M. Kallifatides, M. Kostera, W. Küpers, R. Longman, K. Matyjaszkowicz, J. G. McClellan, A. Milczarczyk, A. Morgan, T. Padan, M. Parker, R. Paulsen, M. Pina e Cunha, M. Polec, A. Rego, A.V. Simpson, A. Strauss, J. Vaughan, K.E. Weick

Our times of crumbling structures and decaying social bonds are often depicted as apocalyptic. This book takes the apocalypse as a metaphor to help us in the search for meaning in our everyday realities. Yes, the apocalypse is when social structures and institutions fall apart and we are terrified and suffocated by the debris raining down upon us. But “apocalypse" also means “revelation”. The very collapse reveals what dissipating institutions were constructed upon: where there ought to have been foundational common values, most often there is violence and raw power. Yet the values are there, too, and they can be found. This book is a guide to these values, showing how they can be of help to organizers and organizational dreamers.