Book Review: Redirections in Organizational Analysis
| Author | Pete Mann |
| Date | 01 September 1986 |
| Published date | 01 September 1986 |
| DOI | 10.1177/014473948600600209 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
service
centred
illustrate
the
approach
and
looks
at
family
policy
to
possibilities
of
a
target
group
approach,
and
at
poverty
as
an
example
of
a
social
problem
based
approach.
Anyone
responsible
for
teaching
comparative
social
policy
or
anyone
feeling
guilty
at
not
teaching
it
should
certainly
look
at
this
book
as
a
possible
core
text.
Many
text
books
leave
the
teacher
a
rather
uncertain
role.
This
book
gives
the
teacher
a
clear
,
exciting
and
exacting
role
-
to
put
flesh
on
the
bones
of
the
argument
-
and
the
bones
provide
an
excellent
framework.
At
the
end
of
the
day,
of
course,
comparative
study
is
only
a
means
to
a
more
informed
and
exacting
policy
analysis.
That
can't
be
done
properly
without
comparative
study.
This
book
is
an
important
landmark
in
that
endeavour.
PAUL
WILDING
Department
of
Social
Administration,
University
of
Manchester
REDIRECTIONS
IN
ORGANIZATIONAL
ANALYSIS
Michael
Reed.
(Tavistock
Publications,
1985,
234pp,
£8.95)
There
are
journal
readers
teaching
public
administration
whose
assumptions
about
organisations
would
be
challenged
by
reading
this
book.
They
might
come
under
the
label
referred
to
by
Reed
as
'"
academic
clerks''',
lecturers
who
retain
a
"pre-reflective
view"
of
organisational
reality,
prescribing
an
"'official
theory'"
of
organisations
for
the
managers
they
teach.
This
theory,
it
is
brought
home
in
Redirections
in
Organisational
Analysis,
is
intellectually
weak
and
empirically
loose.
It
may
be
that
the
theory
continues
to
be
taught
because
it
is
easier
to
espouse
mechanics
of
technocratic
efficiency
than
it
is
to
explicate
analyses
of
collective
action.
106
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