Modern Organizations

Organization Studies in the Postmodern World

Stewart Clegg offers a panoramic and stimulating critical overview of the modern organization and, in the process, challenges the major schools of organization theory that contribute to our understanding of today's industrial enterprise. His wide-ranging analysis both explores current approaches to organization studies and relates the concepts of modernity and postmodernity to the realities of organizational structure and function. In surveying alternative perspectives on organizations in terms of ideal types, systems, contingencies, ecologies, cultures, markets, and efficiency, he vividly demonstrates that no single approach is adequate to deal with the real-world variety of organizations that exist today. Drawing upon unusual and revealing examples--the production of French bread, the Italian fashion industry, and post-Confucian Asian enterprises-- he argues that their success cannot simply be reduced to culture, but must incorporate a broader understanding of the ways in which organizations are constructed and reproduced. His analysis is then adapted to a detailed discussion on the debate over why Japanese organizations are so successful. As both a synthesis of current perspectives and an innovative argument based on a comprehensive international overview, Modern Organizations serves both as a text and important resource for all interested in organization and management studies. "The author gives a timely reminder of the influence of Weber, not only as a significant figure in the development of organization studies but also as an eminent (reforming) theorist of modernity. . . . In this book we encounter significant parallels with Harvey. . . " --Administrative Science Quarterly ". . . the (fifth) chapter on 'French Bread, Italian Fashion and Asian Enterprise' is one of the most interesting treatment of enterprise behavior I have read for some time. . . . The reading list is very full, with a most up-to-date coverage of the field, and there is a useful index. . . . The 'broad international sweep' . . is, of course, to be commended. . . " --Journal of General Management "Contributes to the major debates in organization theory from the perspective of a coherent, overarching framework, and is unmissable on that account alone. But the comprehensiveness of its survey of organizational theory qualifies it as a textbook as well, in a range of disciplines. This book promises the reader as smooth a ride as the terrain permits." --APROS Bulletin "With style and panache . . . Clegg breaks free of the standard format for organization theory books and establishes a new norm. The very freshness of the approach makes comparisons difficult. . . . His work is both broader and more insightful than other more recent works. Clegg's work either represents the initial breakthrough to a new organizational theory perspective or a perspective so far from the bulk of the mainstream that it will be challenged. It is certainly worth the attention of serious scholars in the field." --Choice "Stewart Clegg thrusts the study of organizations towards a truly world view in this tempered and scholarly work. United by its theme of the cultural relativity of organizational analysis, it uses intriguing material notably from Europe and from the nations of the Asian Pacific Rim to take a wide view of ideas and of international differences in organizing and managing." --David J. Hickson, University of Bradford, England "Professor Clegg's stylish, elegantly written work Modern Organisations: Organisation Studies in the Postmodern World is a rewarding blend of theoretical argument and discussion of concrete examples of organisations, which I am sure will be quickly seen as essential reading for students of organisation studies....his discuss of Weber is extrememly good, well read and accurate, as is his discussion of some of the theories of organisations developed since....the greatest value...to be found in this work is the discussion of what Professor Clegg calls "postmodern" organisations." --New Technology Work and Employment "...the (fifth) chapter on 'French Bread', Italian Fashion and Asian Enterprise' is one of the most interesting treatment of enterprise behaviour I have read for some time....The reading list is very full, with a most up-to-date coverage of the field, and there is a useful index....The 'broad international sweep'...is, of course, to be commended..." --Journal of General Management