This book invites the reader to explore the more puzzling aspects of those processes called 'management'. It provides a focused collection of readings to support and encourage wider consideration of alternative ways of thinking about management and its effectiveness in contemporary organisations. Key features of this text include:

* a selection of contributions which derive from historically grounded and politically aware considerations, examining alternative approaches, and drawing on a wider source of perspectives than those currently dominating management literature
* an exploration of the uncertainties and apparent contradictions encountered in management action, grounded in the reflective practices of the contributors, employing examples and experiences from a wide range of organizations
* ideas fundamental to understanding the complexities of management which will extend students' own ways of thinking
* an informed contextual approach to the study of management, grouping together themes and ideas which shed light upon the contested arenas of management action.

By placing emphasis on the development of improved critical abilities in management practice, this book will be an invaluable text for all management studies and MBA students.

David Golding is Senior Research Fellow at the Hull University Business School. He has over twenty years of experience of managing in industry and has spent fifteen years teaching and researching management. He has published widely in both management and sociology journals and contributed to a number of books on management.
David Currie is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Organisational Analysis and Human Resource Management, University of Lincolnshire and Humberside. He has fourteen years’ experience of management in local government and ten years’ experience of teaching and researching in management.