Managing Intensity and Play at Work

What does it mean to organize when the only established premise is that everything is transient? How is it possible for an organization to manage expectations based on the expectation of the unexpected?In this thought-provoking book Niels Åkerstrøm Andersen uses a unique combination of deconstruction, systems theory and discourse theory to critically discuss topics such as the management of feelings, partnerships as second order promises, and work-life balance as an immune defense against over-socialized employees. He assesses the parallels between layoffs in intimate organizations and modern professional divorce discourses, and explores the dichotomy of double-bounded management commanding both 'do as I say' and 'be autonomous'. In so doing, Professor Andersen encourages the reader to look at relationships in the workplace in new ways.

This unique book will prove invaluable for academics and students of human resource management, organizational behavior and critical management studies.

Contents: Introduction 1. Diagnostics of the Present and Second-Order Observation 2. Adapting to Adaptability: The Machine of Transience 3. From Membership to Self-enrolment: The Production of the Employee who Creates Herself in the Organizational Image 4. Management of Authentic Feelings: The Trembling Organization 5. Managing Interpenetration and Intensity 6. Loving Layoffs: The Intimate Strategies of the Break-up 7. Unbound Binding: From Employee Contracts to Partnerships 8. The Organization as a Nexus of Partnerships Conclusion: Transient Relationships - Towards the Intensity Machine Bibliography Index