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A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book about Management
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A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book about Management

Third Edition
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May 2021 | 200 pages | SAGE Publications Ltd
Conceived by Chris Grey, SAGE’s 'A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap’ series shies away from the sterility of conventional textbooks, offering students an informal and accessible overview of the field which challenges the traditional literature.

A bestseller from the series, this new edition of A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book about Management by internationally renowned academic Ann L. Cunliffe has been updated to reflect current research. With inclusion of more international examples and coverage of ethical management, new ways of working and recent successes and failures in leadership in relation to the Covid pandemic, this book will stretch, surprise and reward business and management students at undergraduate, postgraduate and MBA levels. 
 

 
Chapter 1 Management, Management Studies and Managerialism
 
Chapter 2 Communication, Language and Relational Managers
 
Chapter 3 Who are Managers? Discourses of Identity-Work
 
Chapter 4 Managing Culture – Managing Hearts, Minds, Bodies and Souls
 
Chapter 5 Managing Relational, Ethical and ‘Just’ Organizations

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Ann’s book is everything a good textbook about leadership and management should be: It is thought-provoking, challenging, reflexive, packed with knowledge, and mostly, a fresh read in a jungle of boring, slight-variations-over-the-same, management books. Also, Ann is doing an important job in advocating for much-needed critical thinking within the field by challenging conventional assumptions and mainstream literature, and the book reflects this ambition in a good way. 

Professor Tom Karp
Kristiania University College, Inland University College and University of South-Eastern Norway, Norway

This intellectually stimulating and practically relevant book offers a refreshing take not only on management, but also communication, culture, identity, and ethics. Rather than repeating well-worn ideas, this book offers a fresh perspective that can help address the daunting challenges that organizations face in the aftermath of COVID-19. Written in an accessible and friendly tone, this book is essential reading not only for management students, but also for practitioners who want to learn how to be more ethical, responsible, effective, and ultimately better managers. 

James McDonald
Associate Professor, Department of Communication at the University of Texas at San Antonio, USA

This is an excellent introduction to management thought and Organizational Theory. The book is nice to read, very informative and covers all main topics in our field. I strongly recommend it to everyone interested in understanding management thinking. 

Rafael Alcadipani
Professor of Management at FGV-EAESP, Brazil

Ann Cunliffe’s book provides a profound and articulated reinterpretation of managing as a relational, reflexive, and moral practice. At stake is a careful review of traditional management theories, which opens unexplored horizons on landscapes and organizational orographies.

The thought-provoking reference to authors such as Ferdinand de Saussure, Paul Ricoeur, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Mikhail Bakhtin and Judith Butler, enriches, embellishes, and acts as a solid anchor to the reflections proposed by the author.

In a world scourged by turbulence, uncertainty, the COVID-19 pandemic, protests, division, climate change, social and economic sustainability challenges, Ann Cunliffe’s proposal of a different, innovative, and responsible/responsive paradigm of management opens glimmers of hope and a look towards the future.

Giuseppe Scaratti
Professor of Work and Organizational Psychology, University of Bergamo, Italy