A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book about Studying Organizations

by Christopher Grey, Ann L. Cunliffe

This is the book which management students have been waiting for. Written in an accessible style, it enters into lively discussion of classical and contemporary ideas about organizations and their management. It shows that getting to grips with these ideas means asking fundamental questions about what it means to be human and about the nature of modern society.

This book is for you if:
*you get impatient with heavy, conventional and lengthy textbooks
*you are fed up with the trite simplicities of the management gurus
*you are dismayed by dry, worthy, alternative views
*you want to show your lecturer you have done some extra reading

It is an antidote to the boring textbook and it is compatible with any degree course on management and organizations. It will challenge your thinking and it will help you get a good mark in your exam. And it's cheap. Should you buy it? It's a no-brainer.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Sociology, Psychology

160 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2005

About the author

Christopher Grey is Professor of Organization Studies at Royal Holloway, University of London and Visiting Professor at Université Paris-Dauphine. He was previously a Professor of Organizational Behaviour at the University of Warwick, and before that, a Professor of Organizational Theory at the University of Cambridge and Fellow of Wolfson College. He has published numerous academic articles on the sociology and history of management and organizations, on management education and learning, on critical management studies and on professional services organizations. He is the author of A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book about Studying Organizations (2012) and Decoding Organization (2013).

This is the listing for the management author. For the novelist, see Christopher Peter Grey. For the photographer see Christopher Grey.

Reviews

[Joel Nathanael · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Very Short, Fairly Interesting" is British understatement if I've ever heard it. If you're studying business or organizational management, this book succinctly lays out the philosophic tensions that underlie much of modern theory, and in doing so, lends sense to the many conflicting business remedies being thrown about today.

[Manuela Heijn · Rating 1 out of 5]

Moest voor school

[Mina · Rating 4 out of 5]

"... organization theory in its mainstream incarnation... consistently puts the cart before the horse by emphasising the 'how' of organizations rather than the 'why'. And this can't be remedied by doing a little bit of 'why' after the 'how', because the 'how' always contains assumptions about the 'why'. That is, what should be the core of organization theory?"

I find this book pertinent because of some arguments and despite others, also. I found some new good points and it's quite invigorating not to have to skim all the self-important condescendingly dumbed-down literary lard.

Also, the language is colloquial, conversational ("Hmm.") and humorous, ironic, the attributes that give quality where there might have been none otherwise - and, often the case with academic management texts, there is none. So I find such a book with the assumption that its average reader ought to posesses enough critical thinking to discern the 'which' and 'why' and 'what' and consider them, despite the lack of rigorous verbosity.

Thus the absence of the academic - "speech"? "style"? - unexpectedly makes for a more concise and direct means of expressing the author's ideas and arguments. Such succinctness, also offers proof that business and management aren't real sciences :P (because sciences are unified in absolute truth, thus ambiguity is irrelevant >:) ) and for that reason should renounce the presumption of requiring vague, (in theory) correctly ambiguous and correctly academic textbooks. "Obscenely large", indeed. One can only hope.

Right at the end, though... eleven more recommended readings *sigh* :P

[Stephanie Nguyen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Grey’s little book isn’t a textbook. His book isn’t an intro book. As he mentions in the first chapter, you’ll need to have some introductory idea of org theory. He provides a bird’s eye view of the organizational theory and comments and critiques classical theories using historical context and educated hindsight. It’s a surprising yet refreshing approach. He concludes that we all must be skeptical of org theories and question what they are trying to say and what they are trying to accomplish. What this book doesn’t offer is a play by play of specific theories, models, or processes.

I appreciate that Grey takes a different approach than org theory textbooks. First, he contextualizes why and how classical theories emerge. For example, human relations theory emerged to humanize scientific management. He tries to correct some of the assumptions when we learn org theory in introductory courses (like I did): presentation of the theory without any historical context and assuming that these theories emerged in a time and world similar to our time. He contextualizes the rise of organizational culture theories in the 1970s as a response to the scars of the Vietnam/Southeast Asian wars, rising oil prices, increased competition with Japanese automakers, and 1960s political and social movements.

Unlike a textbook, Grey does freely insert his take on certain theories and certain scholarly debates. He frequently talks to his “imaginary heckler,” which is a common visualization for scholarly debates. What is interesting and different is his tone—at times very personal and sarcastic. A tone that can connate subjectivity. I thought the final two chapters—Why Business and Management Has Failed and the Conclusion (aka Why Org Theory Matters)—were critical of the dominant (yet non-critical) narrative in business management education. Grey, again, hammers the need to question all of the emerging popular org trends as a reincarnation of past trends, only with a shinier new package and name. Overall, he challenges new org scholars to think critical and always question.

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Challenging book, but much resonates with my experience of working in, and studying, organisations. The distinction between instructive and substantive rationality, which echoes through the book in various guises, is important. He misses something in the section on culture about actively building psychological safety, encouraging self-care and compassion which I see as a meaningful and ethical approach to substantive rationality in my domain (healthcare).

He does carp on though, but admits it, which makes it just about bearable. And I will be thinking about this book for a while.

[Caroline Williams · Rating 2 out of 5]

Put shortly, this book was too British for me. This was another book I had to read for class and I honestly couldn’t recall a single main idea. The sentences had too many words and I was begging the author to just get to the point. Two stars because I appreciated some of the examples and how short the book was.

[Daniel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Gray dishes it out to others for their blindness to value rationality, but he is stuck in the same Morality which he criticizes. The whole book comes off as a petulant whine. It is poorly argued, often relying on anecdotal evidence and assuming that if something is contingent it must somehow be unjustified, wherefore we should get rid of it. There is no serious engagement with his critics and the frequent sarcastic comments are childish.

[Melle Kramer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very informational and inspirational

If all the people involved in positions of power would dare to be only be slightly inspired by the insights in this book the world would be better off. Immediately. Great work. Thanks to the author for sharing.

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. If you want the real story of bureaucracy, change management, culture management, and the like, read this book. The author lays out the issues succinctly and beautifully.

[Mise · Rating 3 out of 5]

Useful for managers or people looking to grow an organisation

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author provides a critical overview of organisational theory that is accessible to all who might be interested in the topic, not just academics. He follows a historical perspective in a way that makes approaches to the study of organisations both digestible and contextualised in their contemporary cultural and social ideas. This facilitates the development of a critical perspective on the views of how organisations are "best" managed today in order to stimulate further thought and reflection that could translate to meaningful practice for those possessing some influence in their organisation. Some (introductory) familiarity of organisational theory and management are likely to be beneficial prior to reading the book.

[Emil Petersen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easily the best book I have read about studying organizations - and also the shortest. Studying organizations is hard, if not impossible. Talk to five experts and they'll say five different things. The tomes of academia are full of these lofty, ivory opinions, and it's pretty awful. Christopher John Grey gave me hope in the effort of trying to understand organizations, after it was pretty much extinguished by one convoluted theory after another. Chapter 6 - 'Business Schools and the Myth of Management Education' blew my mind and was just what I needed a that point. Great book!

[Jamie Emerson · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is what it purports to be. Subversive and perhaps quite niche but in an accessible way. I was surprised to learn there is a “Management” book in the series, as a central part of Grey’s thesis is that the study of organizations in its mainstream form is essentially for the purposes of management. And management, he argues, is futile. At least, I think that’s what the argument is. Like I said, somewhat esoteric and niche for the lay reader but I predict some of the ideas and arguments will come back to me long into the future.

[Eetu Kirsi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy and fast read. Some knowledge about managing organizations is needed to get the critique. Organization management styles bundled and explained in rounded way. Fifth chapter about New capitalism and recent events in world financial history tend to go strech into conclusions.

Includes interesting discussion about fallacies of managing people. Recommended read to all students of organizations.

[John Gaffney · Rating 5 out of 5]

The title of this book says it all. Great read if you are completing a degree in Commerce, Business or Management. It will introduce you to the major topics and ideas you are bound to cover in your course and so is a good starting point before you are assigned academic papers on these same topics and ideas.

[Georgina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read if …..
you’d like an oversight into various aspects of organisations without having to delve deep into a text book. Different aspects of organisations are covered using case studies and the author’s opinions. At times feels like it goes too in depth or critiques too far, however gives the reader an overview in which to analyse their chosen organisations.

[audstruck · Rating 1 out of 5]

bleeeech! Way to preach about how you hate boring management books and then turn out to be one.