This book views management as a complex set of social and symbolic processes often characterized by considerable ambiguity and paradox. In particular, it develops the body of work concerned with building experienced-based, grounded description and understanding of the processes of management and managing.

The contributors explore: the dynamics, subtleties and complexities of managerial life; its informal as well as formalized features and practices; and the significance of the cultural and symbolic in organizations. There is a concern with meanings and the relationships between managerial talk, thought and action. The contributors also draw on both established social anthropological concepts - such as culture, myth, ritual,