Organizations in Action

Since the 1960s organizational behaviour has been dominated by mainstream modernist approaches in which organizations are rational, ordered and systematic. This text provides a critique and examination of this approach from both post-modern and 1990s organizational economic perspectives. The book includes: an analysis of social and organizational theory; a synthesis of organizational theory, comparative organizational studies and organizational design/development; an examination of organizational economics as an increasingly important influence in organizational theory; a coverage of public sector and not-for-profit organizations; and a selection of core examples from the UK, the USA, Japan and Northern Europe.

Deserves serious attention...[Clark] has done a great service to his readers by immersing himself in the seemingly impenetrable literature of the critical realists, and summarising what he sees as its implications...An invaluable guide to buisness historians. - Michael Rowlinson, Business History

Peter Clark is Professor of Organisational Management at the University of Birmingham Business School.