Managing Modernity: End Of Bureaucracy, The?

Description:
Bureaucracy has long been a cornerstone of advanced industrial societies, and a defining feature of modernity. At the same time, many commentators from all quarters argue that it is on the wane in this post-this or that world; or that if it isn't, it should be dismantled to free up organizations, enterprise, and innovation. But do we live in a more or less bureaucratic world? Do contemporary forms and means of communication undermine or modify bureaucracy, or does technology create new 'iron cages' and forms of control? If bureaucratic models of organization are abandoned, do we run risks of organizational failure and inequity? Are there certain moral, professional, and social values associated with bureaucratic models? This book explores these issues in different organizational contexts - public administration, the National Health Service, the modern firm and corporation - and offers new insights into enduring questions. It will be an invaluable resource for academics, researchers, and students in organization studies, management, public administration, and sociology. The volume will also appeal to managers, planners, and policy makers who deal with these challenges.

Table of Contents:
INTRODUCTION; Managing Modernity: Beyond Bureaucracy?; 1. 'Without Regard to Persons': Problems of Involvement and Attachment in 'Post-bureaucratic' Public Management; 2. Bureaucratic and Post-bureaucratic Accountability in Britain: Some Sceptical Reflections; 3. New Lock, New Stock, New Barrel, Same Gun: the Accessorized Bureaucracy of Healthcare; 4. Applying Soft Bureaucracy to Rhetorics of Choice: UK NHS 1983-2007; 5. Network Governance and the Politics of Organizational Resistance in UK Healthcare: the National Programme for Information Technology; 6. Bureaucracy Under Siege: On Information, Collaboration and Networks; 7. 'Meritocracy' versus 'Sociocracy': Personnel Concepts and HR Themes in Two IT/Management Consulting Firms; 8. Post-Bureaucratic Manufacturing? A Consideration of the Post-War Organization of Large British Firms; 9. Under Reconstruction: Modern Bureaucracies; 10. The Post-Bureaucratic Organization and the Control Revolution; 11. The Futures of Bureaucracy?