Mats Alvesson and Hugh Willmott: Making Sense of Management

1996, London: Sage. 246 pages.

Here we have another useful looking runner from the Alvesson/Willmott stable which builds upon and deepens their earlier, edited, Critical Management Studies (Alvesson and Willmott 1992). Fortuitously, its interest and utility is enhanced by the closely following Pandemonium of Gibson Burrell (Burrell 1997). Taking the two principal critical perspectives on contemporary management and organization theory and practice to be Critical Theory and Post-Structuralism, it is particularly opportune to have, in effect, major positional works from leading proponents of the two perspectives. To students of management and organization, and sympathetic practitioners, the near simultaneous appearance of these two books is of inestimable value.

As regards Making Sense of Management, the purpose of the project is to show how Critical Theory can provide both a penetrating critique of, particularly, management practice as a reflection of a certain type of management theory, and to point a way forward out of the dysfunctions of the current dominant understanding of management. The authors are well equipped to do this, given their extensive backgrounds in Critical Theory and Management and Organization Studies, and, as one would anticipate, the book is at once comprehensive, wide ranging and detailed. At one level, it is well structured into three sections, namely an introduction to Critical Theory, an exposition of the potential of Critical Theory to provide a critique of contemporary management and, finally, a suggestion as to how Critical Theory can lead to an emancipatory praxis in management. This structure is explained in the Introduction, which usefully provides a diagrammatic guide as to how the argument is developed throughout the book. As usual with these authors, there is an excellent (though not always accurate!) reference list and a comprehensive index.

The first of the three sections comprehensively sets up the brand of Critical Theory favoured by the authors - a brand that is wider than the Frankfurt School tradition. It allows for the influence of, if not embracing the details of, inter alia, knowledge paradigms, feminism and a little post-structuralism. Using an essentially Habermasian perspective, the second section contains a somewhat problematic chapter on metaphor followed by two chapters providing a critique of Organization Theory, Marketing, Strategic Management, Accounting, Information Systems and Operational Research, essentially extending the position outlined in the aforementioned Critical Management Studies. However, to a degree, all this is scene setting for what is the major thrust of the book, contained in section three, and which is probably its most useful contribution - an attempt to answer the question: How can the emancipatory potential of Critical Theory be realized in organizations? The answer is via a micro-emancipatory praxis rooted in critical reflection, particularly by organizational members supported and reinforced by a pedagogy of critical management thinking. It is at this point that all emancipatory interests can conjoin, including humanistic management theory and post-structuralism, irrespective of, unfettered by and essentially ignoring their differing philosophical underpinnings. This gradualist approach to emancipation (pp. 51-52) will no doubt find wide support amongst students and practitioners who are looking for a way out of the sterility of, and problems caused by, the capitalist-managerialist approach to organizing. One thing I would suggest to readers, particularly those unfamiliar with the sort of material contained in the book, is to read the final chapter, if not the final section, first. Once the prescriptive intention of the authors is understood, the foregoing analysis should be more penetrable. There are a number of proof-reading errors, including the delicious Secretaries and Exchange Committee (p. 42) - more fun than Securities, I bet! - and the tragic absence of a citation in the text of that wonderful, wonderful paper by Jackson and Carter (1991), which features in the list of references. Ah well, one must be thankful for small mercies, I suppose!