Organisations, identities and the self / Janette Webb.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Webb, Janette.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Organizational sociology.

Physical Description:

xiv, 234 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2006.

Summary:

Why do we have the organisations we have? What have modern organisations done to us and for us? Do we have any influence over the way they work? This timely new book provides a sociological account of the interactions between organisations, social identities and our sense of self, in an era of global capitalism. Organisations, Identities and the Self offers a fresh, theoretically informed account of organisational life in contemporary society. Drawing upon the latest research and global data, the author considers both modernist and postmodernist perspectives, offering a balanced appraisal of the impact of big organisations on us and our society. An accessible text, it is structured around an explanation of the interconnected changes in political economy, organisations and individual's lives as consumers, workers and citizens, while maintaining agency at the heart of its discussion.

Clearly written yet highly informative, this text incorporates a variety of theoretical perspectives to elucidate the complexities of organisational life. The book's originality and internationalist approach make it fundamental reading for students interested in the relationship between organisations and modern society in sociology and across a number of other disciplines.

Contents:

A Sociological Perspective on Organisations 3

The Distinctiveness of Modern Organisations 4

Structure and Agency in the Context of Organisations 5

The Challenge of Postmodernism 7

An Analytic Distinction between Self and Identity 10

Interpretative Approaches to the Interconnections of Organisations, Identities and the Self 11

The Structure of the Book and Chapter Outline 12

1 Understanding Organisations, Identities and the Self: a Conceptual Framework 15

The Sociological Perspective on the Self and Social Identities 15

The Postmodernist Treatment of Identity and Subjectivity 17

The Historical Development of the Self as Agent: from Ascribed to Achieved Identity 19

A Circumscribed and Instrumental Form of Agency? Weber's 'Iron Cage' of Rationalisation 20

Self-determination and Agency Dissolved in a Postmodern 'Invisible Cage' of Total Institutions 23

Do Organisations Determine Identities? 26

Sociological Evidence from Organisations: Agency Continues 26

A New Oversocialised Concept of Organisations as Determined by Cultural Identities 29

The Dialectical Relationship between Agency, Identity and Organisation 31

2 Globalising Economies and Organisations 36

The Globalist Model: the Inevitability of a Global Market? 37

The Traditionalist Critique of the Globalisation Perspective 38

Change and Continuity? The Transformationalist Perspective 39

Organising Deregulated Global Markets: the Role of the IMF, World Bank and WTO 40

Global Finance and the Strategies and Identities of Corporations 44

The Irrationalities of Rationalised Economies: Corporate Identity and the Enron Case 47

The Politics of Identity and its Connection to Globalised Financial Markets 50

3 Organisations, Identities and Consumption 53

Organisations and the Development of Consumer Markets 54

Why Globalising Markets Create the Need for Organisational Identities 57

Branding and Organisational Identity 59

An Industry in Organisational Identity? 60

Organisational Identity and 'Lifestyling' 62

Agency, Identity and Consumerism 64

Critique - the Indivisibility of Production and Consumption 68

Collective Consumer Identities and the Politics of Resistance 70

4 Public Service Reorganisation, Work and Consumer Citizenship 74

The Context: Social Democratic Welfare States and Social Identity 76

The Dual Crises of Welfare States: Neoliberalism and Identity Politics 77

The Reorganisation of Public Services: from Professional Bureaucracy to Management Tools and Markets 80

Public Management and a New Identity Project for Public Servants 84

Experiencing the Contradictions between Empowerment and Rationalisation 88

New Contracts for Public Service: Empowered Partners or Rationalised Labour? 89

The Identity of Consumer Citizenship 91

5 Organisations and Global Divisions of Labour 95

Theoretical Conjectures: the Restructuring of Work and Organisations? 96

Work and Occupational Change in Advanced Capitalist Countries: an Evaluation of Theoretical Assertions 97

The Globally Organised Interdependence of Labour 112

6 Organisational Restructuring, Work and Social Divisions 126

Theoretical Conjectures about Employment and Occupational Change 128

Challenging the Myths of Mass Casualisation of Work, Short-termism in Employment and the End of Careers 129

The Power of Finance Capital and the Intensification of Work 133

Changing Class, Ethnic and Gender Divisions in Organisations? 133

Organisations and Restructured Gender Divisions 136

'Racialised' and Ethnic Divisions in Organisations 140

The Restructuring of Class Divisions in Organisations 143

Social Divisions and Processes of Cultural and Social Identity 144

Does Economic Individualisation Necessarily Produce Individualism? 147

7 'We Are the Company': Work, Control and Identity in the Organisations of Advanced Capitalism 151

Explaining the Organisational Emphasis on Managing Employee Identity 152

Organisational Control through Regulating Identity 154

The Organisational Colonisation of Identity? 160

Critique of the Effectiveness of Organisational Control through the Regulation of Identity 162

Organisational Power Relations, Social Divisions and the Meanings of Emotional Labour 165

8 Organisations Are Us: Understanding Self-identity in Organised Societies 174

Globalising Markets, Organisations and Individualisation 175

The Organisation of a Productive Self: a Postmodernist Analysis 177

An Expertise of Self-improvement? 179

Is Work Treated as a Resource for Self-improvement? 180

Subversive Responses to the Enterprise of the Self 184

'Being Productive' in Work, Non-work and Leisure? 185

Evaluating the Concept of a Productive Subjectivity 187

Conclusion: Bringing Life Back to Organisations 193

A Summary of the Argument 193

Key Themes from Chapter 1 194

Key Themes from Chapter 2 196

Key Themes from Chapter 3 197

Key Themes from Chapter 4 198

Key Themes from Chapter 5 199

Key Themes from Chapter 6 200

Key Themes from Chapter 7 201

Key Themes from Chapter 8 202.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 207-224) and index.

ISBN:

0333804872

0333804880

OCLC:

70061096

Publisher Number:

9780333804889

9780333804872

Online:

Contributor biographical information

Publisher description