Managing Modernity: The End of Bureaucracy?

Bureaucracy has long been seen as a defining feature of modernity and a cornerstone of the advanced industrial societies. Yet one of the most striking features of contemporary debate is that the bureaucratic form has been dismissed by commentators of virtually all persuasions.

But do we live in a more or a less bureaucratic world? Do new information and communications technologies undermine or modify bureaucracy? Or do these technologies create new `iron cages' and modes of organizational control?

This book explores the above issues in a range of organizational settings, including public administration, national systems of healthcare, and the modern corporation, offering new insights into some enduring questions of centralization, decentralization, power, and control. It will be an invaluable resource for academics, researchers, and students in organization studies, management, public administration, and sociology. The volume will also appeal to managers, planners, and policy makers who are confronted with the problem of managing large organizations in an increasingly complex and uncertain world.

Stewart Clegg is Research Professor and Director of the Centre for Management and Organizational Studies at the University of Technology, Sydney.
Martin Harris is Senior Lecturer at Essex University Business School.
Harro Hopfl is Research Professor at Essex University Business School.