Hidden Attractions of Administration

This book argues that the expansion of administrative activities in today’s working life is driven not only by pressure from above, but also from below. The authors examine the inner dynamics of people-processing organizations—those formally working for clients, patients, or students—to uncover the...

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Huvudupphov: Åkerström, Malin, Jacobsson, Katarina, Andersson Cederholm, Erika, Wästerfors, David
Materialtyp: Online
Språk:engelska
Utgiven: Taylor & Francis 2021
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author Åkerström, Malin
Jacobsson, Katarina
Andersson Cederholm, Erika
Wästerfors, David
author_browse Andersson Cederholm, Erika
Jacobsson, Katarina
Wästerfors, David
Åkerström, Malin
author_facet Åkerström, Malin
Jacobsson, Katarina
Andersson Cederholm, Erika
Wästerfors, David
author_sort Åkerström, Malin
collection Directory of Open Access Books
description This book argues that the expansion of administrative activities in today’s working life is driven not only by pressure from above, but also from below. The authors examine the inner dynamics of people-processing organizations—those formally working for clients, patients, or students—to uncover the hidden attractions of doing administrative work, despite all the complaints and laments about "too many meetings" or "too much paperwork." There is something appealing to those compelled to participate in today’s constantly multiplying and expanding administration that defies popular framings of it as merely pressure from above. Hidden Attractions of Administration shows in detail the emotional attractiveness, moral conflicts, and almost magical features that administrative tasks often entail in today’s organizations, supported by ethnographic studies consisting of over 200 qualitative interviews and participant observations from ten organizational settings and contexts across Sweden. The authors also question and complement explanations in administration-related research that have previously been taken for granted, arguing that it is a simplification to attribute all aspects of the change to New Public Management and instead taking into account what the classic sociologist Georg Simmel called anEigendynamik: a self-reinforcing tendency that, under certain circumstances, needs only a nudge in an administrative direction to get going. By applying ethnography to issues of bureaucratization and meeting cultures and by drawing on findings in emotional sociology and social anthropology, this volume contributes to both the sociology of work and the study of human service organizations and will appeal to scholars and students working across both areas.
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spelling doab-20.500.12854ir-679532025-03-12T19:00:50Z Hidden Attractions of Administration Åkerström, Malin Jacobsson, Katarina Andersson Cederholm, Erika Wästerfors, David administration administrative work attractions bureaucratization documents Eigendynamik emotional attrativeness emotional sociology human service organizations meetings meeting cultures moral conflicts New Public Management pressure from above pressure from below Simmel sociology of organizations sociology of work working life work dynamics thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHB Sociology This book argues that the expansion of administrative activities in today’s working life is driven not only by pressure from above, but also from below. The authors examine the inner dynamics of people-processing organizations—those formally working for clients, patients, or students—to uncover the hidden attractions of doing administrative work, despite all the complaints and laments about "too many meetings" or "too much paperwork." There is something appealing to those compelled to participate in today’s constantly multiplying and expanding administration that defies popular framings of it as merely pressure from above. Hidden Attractions of Administration shows in detail the emotional attractiveness, moral conflicts, and almost magical features that administrative tasks often entail in today’s organizations, supported by ethnographic studies consisting of over 200 qualitative interviews and participant observations from ten organizational settings and contexts across Sweden. The authors also question and complement explanations in administration-related research that have previously been taken for granted, arguing that it is a simplification to attribute all aspects of the change to New Public Management and instead taking into account what the classic sociologist Georg Simmel called anEigendynamik: a self-reinforcing tendency that, under certain circumstances, needs only a nudge in an administrative direction to get going. By applying ethnography to issues of bureaucratization and meeting cultures and by drawing on findings in emotional sociology and social anthropology, this volume contributes to both the sociology of work and the study of human service organizations and will appeal to scholars and students working across both areas. 2021-04-20T08:10:21Z 2021 book ONIX_20210420_9781000392272_14 ONIX_20210420_9781000392272_14 OCN: 1240830385 https://library.oapen.org/handle/20.500.12657/47882 9781000392272 9781003108436 9780367622268 9780367622275 https://directory.doabooks.org/handle/20.500.12854/67953 eng Routledge Studies in the Sociology of Work, Professions and Organisations open access image/png image/jpeg image/jpeg image/jpeg image/jpeg Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/47882/1/9781000392272.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/47882/1/9781000392272.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/47882/1/9781000392272.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/47882/1/9781000392272.pdf https://library.oapen.org/bitstream/20.500.12657/47882/1/9781000392272.pdf Taylor & Francis Routledge 10.4324/9781003108436 10.4324/9781003108436 fa69b019-f4ee-4979-8d42-c6b6c476b5f0 9781000392272 9781003108436 9780367622268 9780367622275 Routledge 170 open access
spellingShingle administration
administrative work
attractions
bureaucratization
documents
Eigendynamik
emotional attrativeness
emotional sociology
human service organizations
meetings
meeting cultures
moral conflicts
New Public Management
pressure from above
pressure from below
Simmel
sociology of organizations
sociology of work
working life
work dynamics
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHB Sociology
Åkerström, Malin
Jacobsson, Katarina
Andersson Cederholm, Erika
Wästerfors, David
Hidden Attractions of Administration
title Hidden Attractions of Administration
title_full Hidden Attractions of Administration
title_fullStr Hidden Attractions of Administration
title_full_unstemmed Hidden Attractions of Administration
title_short Hidden Attractions of Administration
title_sort hidden attractions of administration
topic administration
administrative work
attractions
bureaucratization
documents
Eigendynamik
emotional attrativeness
emotional sociology
human service organizations
meetings
meeting cultures
moral conflicts
New Public Management
pressure from above
pressure from below
Simmel
sociology of organizations
sociology of work
working life
work dynamics
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHB Sociology
topic_facet administration
administrative work
attractions
bureaucratization
documents
Eigendynamik
emotional attrativeness
emotional sociology
human service organizations
meetings
meeting cultures
moral conflicts
New Public Management
pressure from above
pressure from below
Simmel
sociology of organizations
sociology of work
working life
work dynamics
thema EDItEUR::J Society and Social Sciences::JH Sociology and anthropology::JHB Sociology
url ONIX_20210420_9781000392272_14
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