Pandemonium: Towards a Retro-Organization Theory

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SAGE, Feb 13, 1997 - Business & Economics - 254 pages
`A truly bizarre and sometimes filthy historical canter through abatoirs, satyriasis and Noel Edmonds′ House Party, among other things, towards a theory of organisation′ - The Times

′The author pursues a vigorous polemic on organisational development′ - Financial Times

In this irreverent and inventive book, Gibson Burrell seeks to circumvent the established frameworks which have defined our understanding of organization and organizations. He brings us tales from under the edge which enmire us in the nether side of modernist organization.

By looking backwards deep into the history of Western societies, and sideways across the broad domain of social and cultural theory, Pandemonium disconcerts and invigorates the domain of the study of organizations.

Through his experimental device of the two-directional text, Burrell offers multi-layered meanings and a metaphor for the rejection of linearity. This is not an organizational behaviour textbook but an exploration that will take organization theory into a new era.

From inside the book

Contents

Into Pandemonium
35
The Magic Kingdom
86
Pandemonium Municipal LIbrary
113
Acknowledgments
125
RetroOrganization Theory
130
First Exibit Abattoirs and Death
134
Sixth Exhibit The Hall of MIrrors
166
Second Exhibit Pain and Disease
169
Fifth Exhibit The Pillory
197
Third Exhibit Satyrsville
210
Fourth Exhibit Panopticon City
242
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About the author (1997)

Gibson Burrell is Professor of Organizational Behaviour at the University of Warwick. He is also co-editor of Organization: the interdisciplinary journal of organization, theory and society published by Sage. With Gareth Morgan, he co-authored the path-breaking book Sociological Paradigms and Organizational Analysis in 1979 and has since published numerous articles in books and journals.

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