Reason's Neglect Rationality and Organizing

by Townley, Barbara

• ISBN13: 9780199298365
• ISBN10: 019929836X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-09-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Reason, and the need to 'be rational', are essential dimensions of society and organizations, the foundation of social coordination. Yet 'rationality' in organizations studies is, all too often, understood, interpreted, and used in an extremely narrow sense.

Author Biography

Professor Barbara Townley was awarded her PhD from the London School of Economics. She taught at Lancaster, Warwick, and Edinburgh universities in the UK, and at the University of Alberta, Canada, before taking up her present position at the University of St. Andrews. Her work has been published in leading North American and European journals including Administrative Science Quarterly, Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Management Studies, Organization Studies, Human Relations, Organization, and Accounting, Organization, and Society. She is the author of the widely cited Reframing Human Resource Management (Sage, 1994) which offered a Foucauldian critique of HRM. She has been Associate Editor of Human Relations, and serves on the editorial boards of Human Relations, Journal of Management Studies, Organization, and Strategic Organization.

Table of Contents

Figure	p. xii
List of Boxes	p. xiii
Foucault and rationality	p. 1
Why rationality?	p. 3
Whose reason?	p. 6
Why Foucault?	p. 9
Foucault...how?	p. 13
The importance of analysing practice	p. 15
The argument: A pictorial representation	p. 19
Disembedded Rationality
Introduction	p. 22
Economic rationality	p. 27
Purposeful individuals	p. 27
The anthropomorphization of organizations	p. 31
Bounded rationality	p. 34
Decision-making	p. 36
The new rationality	p. 39
Conclusions	p. 44
Bureaucratic rationality	p. 46
Bureaucracy	p. 46
Bureaucracy and rationality	p. 49
The response to uncertainty: Domination through knowledge	p. 52
Conclusions	p. 65
Technocratic rationality	p. 66
Technology and organization	p. 66
Technology as technique	p. 68
Management as science	p. 72
Technocratic administration?	p. 78
Which science?	p. 84
Management as practice	p. 86
Conclusions	p. 87
Embedded Rationality
Introduction	p. 90
Institutional rationality	p. 95
The rationalization of value spheres	p. 95
The institution of reason	p. 97
Institutional theory and rationalized myths	p. 101
Institutional logics	p. 107
Rationality institutionalized?	p. 109
Institutional 'rationality'?	p. 110
Conclusions	p. 112
Contextual rationality	p. 113
Hidden from reason: A Romantic legacy	p. 113
Rationality versus community	p. 119
Culture as competence: Rendering rational	p. 125
Rationality as thick description? A narrative rationality	p. 128
Conclusion: Rational Communities?	p. 130
Situational rationality	p. 132
A presumption of logic	p. 132
The rationality of situated action	p. 134
Situated knowledge	p. 138
Situated studies	p. 142
Conclusions	p. 152
The 'Other' of Reason
Introduction	p. 154
Embodied rationality	p. 159
The body	p. 159
Embodied thinking and knowledge	p. 162
The emotions	p. 168
Emotions in organizations	p. 170
Rational emotions?	p. 177
The 'irrational' unconscious	p. 179
Conclusions	p. 185
Conclusions
Collective rationality	p. 189
Collective action	p. 190
Collective action and the 'collective good'	p. 193
Collective reasoning	p. 194
Collective reasoning and the 'collective good'	p. 197
The collective within organization studies	p. 200
Collective reasoning and practice	p. 201
Conclusions	p. 205
Practical reason	p. 206
Practical concerns	p. 207
Practical rationalities	p. 210
Practical reason	p. 213
Conclusion	p. 218
Appendix	p. 220
Notes	p. 222
References	p. 251
Glossary	p. 274
Index	p. 276
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