Inside Management: Studying Organizational Practices

This pivot includes a series of inside ethnographic accounts and stories about managerial practices and processes, providing a critical account of managerial and HR practices. It seeks to advance thinking in the theoretical areas of strategy-as-practice (SasP), Actor-Network Theory, human resource management practices and safety as practice. Offering a unique insider insight to decision-making and strategy within an organization, the chapters demonstrate how practices are constructed and implemented for a range of systems and policies. Employing an ethnographic approach also gives an opportunity to assess the interpretation and deployment of procedures, policies and practices in order to control and achieve conformity to organizational goals. It satisfies a demand for richer descriptions of managerial practices in situ that can be used to challenge and critique traditional approaches, and guide researchers to apply an SasP and ANT perspective in other organizational settings.

David Vickers is an Organisational Development and HR Consultant and a Charity Trustee. He worked in a UK University for 20 years teaching HR practitioners. Prior to working in academia, David had 18 years’ experience as a senior HR practitioner. His research interests include ethnography, Actor-Network Theory and critical human resource management.