Management and Language: The Manager as a Practical Author

Management and Langugage explores and develops the image of the manager as one who is aware of, and attends to, the way in which language is used in everyday managerial activity. Much managerial activity is achieved through language and a vital task for any manager is to generate with others an intelligible account of the various feelings that surround the contested issues in the organization.

Such a process involves reading a context from different perspectives, constructing new meanings, framing the complexities and dilemmas faced into new ′landscapes′ of possible future actions, and creating a persuasive argument for those landscapes amongst those who must work in them. For such a process to be conducted successfully a range of abilities and skills become relevant such as storytelling, metaphors and developing arguments.

Management and Language is a timely publication with contributions from eminent academics in the field. This book will be engaging reading to academics and management teachers interested in critical management theory and those generally open to new and different approaches to management. It will also be of relevance to practising managers who wish to have a deeper understanding of how they use language in their everyday work.