Darren McCabe

The literature on Change Management works from the premise that management possesses the power to achieve change and this is evident in that resistance is little more than a footnote in most textbooks. This assumption sits uneasily, however, with the high failure rate of Change Management interventions. This book seeks to explain this paradox by providing a critical ‘relational’ approach towards Change Management. What would a book on Change Management look like that takes resistance seriously? This book attempts precisely this by exploring how resistance is as much a part of change as the strategies of those that seek to enact it. The findings are drawn from a qualitative study of organizational transformation in a Local Government Authority in the UK. Its detailed empirical insights enable readers to explore organizational change from many different perspectives considering issues such as the strategic use of metaphor and counter-metaphors; management and employee resistance; organizational politics and cynicism. It will be of interest to researchers, academics, and students interested in change management, organizational studies, human resource management, and critical management studies.

The literature on Change Management works from the premise that management possesses the power to achieve change and this is evident in that resistance is little more than a footnote in most textbooks. This assumption sits uneasily, however, with the high failure rate of Change Management interventions. This book seeks to explain this paradox by providing a critical ‘relational’ approach towards Change Management. What would a book on Change Management look like that takes resistance seriously? This book attempts precisely this by exploring how resistance is as much a part of change as the strategies of those that seek to enact it. The findings are drawn from a qualitative study of organizational transformation in a Local Government Authority in the UK. Its detailed empirical insights enable readers to explore organizational change from many different perspectives considering issues such as the strategic use of metaphor and counter-metaphors; management and employee resistance; organizational politics and cynicism. It will be of interest to researchers, academics, and students interested in change management, organizational studies, human resource management, and critical management studies.

Providing detailed insights into working life, McCabe, a well known author in the fields of organization studies, labour process theory and critical management studies offers a distinctive approach to innovation in the work place. In this ethnography of a major US bank he argues that many innovations associated with the ‘new’ corporation seem to reproduce many of the conditions that we associate with the industrial age such as hierarchy, the division of labour, task specialization and command and control approaches to management. Through exploring strategy, technology, teamwork and culture change programmes in a contemporary organization, McCabe demonstrates the debilitating consequences of these interventions. This book explores a range of questions, including: Do employees who are treated as machines become machines?How do they cope with work that regards them as less than human?Do managers dream of electric staff?What are the consequences of such thinking and are there alternative ways to organize work in the twenty- first Century?Accessible to numerous levels: undergraduate, MA and MBA, this book is an excellent resource for those studying business and management, organization studies, sociology of work, employee relations, psychology of work and strategy.

Providing detailed insights into working life, McCabe, a well known author in the fields of organization studies, labour process theory and critical management studies offers a distinctive approach to innovation in the work place. In this ethnography of a major US bank he argues that many innovations associated with the ‘new’ corporation seem to reproduce many of the conditions that we associate with the industrial age such as hierarchy, the division of labour, task specialization and command and control approaches to management. Through exploring strategy, technology, teamwork and culture change programmes in a contemporary organization, McCabe demonstrates the debilitating consequences of these interventions. This book explores a range of questions, including: Do employees who are treated as machines become machines?How do they cope with work that regards them as less than human?Do managers dream of electric staff?What are the consequences of such thinking and are there alternative ways to organize work in the twenty- first Century?Accessible to numerous levels: undergraduate, MA and MBA, this book is an excellent resource for those studying business and management, organization studies, sociology of work, employee relations, psychology of work and strategy.