The Triumph of Emptiness by Alvesson, Mats;

Consumption, Higher Education, and Work Organization

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Product details:

Edition number 2
Publisher OUP Oxford
Date of Publication 14 April 2022

ISBN 9780192865274
Binding Paperback
No. of pages240 pages
Size 234x155x14 mm
Weight 376 g
Language English

Short description:

This second edition updates Alvesson's significant critique of the economy of persuasion, where organizations and groups assign resources to rhetoric, image, and reputation rather than production of goods and services. It examines critical phenomena such as the knowledge society, consumption, higher education, organizational change, and leadership.

Long description:

In today's world, considerable time and effort is devoted to appearance, both for individuals and organizations; the right look, an impressive title, a favourable connection. The focus is on the surface, with considerations of substance often overlooked. In this book, Mats Alvesson demystifies some popular and upbeat claims about a range of phenomena, including the knowledge society, consumption, branding, higher education, organizational change, professionalization, and leadership. He contends that a culture of 'grandiosity' is leading to numerous inflated claims. We no longer talk about plans but 'strategies'. Supervisors have been replaced by 'managers', and managers are referred to as 'executives'. Management itself is about 'leadership'. Giving advice is 'coaching'. Companies become 'knowledge-intensive firms'. This book views the contemporary economy as an economy of persuasion, where firms and other institutions increasingly assign talent, energy, and resources to rhetoric, image, branding, reputation, and visibility.

This second edition uses a wide range of empirical examples to illuminate the realms of consumption, higher education, organization, and leadership in the 21st century. Exploring new areas such as strategic management in higher education, title inflation, and the increasing imbalance between knowledge, manual, and care work, this provocative and engaging book challenges established assumptions and contributes to a critical understanding of society as a whole.

In The Triumph of Emptiness Mats Alvesson demonstrates the considerable value of critical theory for understanding everyday life in contemporary Western societies. Refreshingly astute as regards our current state of institutional being, this book is engagingly written and well-grounded in the best critical thought has to offer. Alvesson has once again accomplished what he does so well think a vital subject through with wit and insight

Introduction: Zero-Sum Games, Grandiosity, and Illusion Trick
Consumption: the Shortcomings of Affluence
Explaining the Consumption Paradox: Why Aren't People (More) Satisfied?
Higher Education: Triumph of the Knowledge Intensive Society or a Statistical Cosmetics Project?
Higher Education: An Image-Boosting Business?
Modern Working Life and Organizations: Change, Dynamism, and Post-Bureaucracy?
Organizational Structures on the Beauty Parade: Imitation and Shop-Window Dressing
A Place in the Sun: Occupational Groups' Professionalization Projects and Other Status and Influence Ambitions
Leadership: A Driving Force or Empty Talk
The Triumph of Imagology: A Paradise for Tricksters?
The Costs of Grandiosity