Inside Management

“Participant observations of positions high in the hierarchy are very rare; not the least because the job is too demanding to play the two roles – of participant and an observer – at the same time. This is why both students and general readers will be very pleased to learn what a Human Resource Manager actually does – from David Vickers’ book.”

— Barbara Czarniawska, Professor of Management Studies, University of Gothenburg, Sweden




“A strong ethnographic account of managerial and HR work. I will definitely have a copy on my bookcase.”

— Aileen Lawless, Reader in Human Resource Development (HRD) and Head of the Leadership, Education and Development (LEAD) research group at Liverpool Business School, UK​This pivot includes a series of inside ethnographic accounts and stories about managerial practices and processes, providing a critical account of managerial and HR practices. It seeks to advance thinking in the theoretical areas of strategy-as-practice (SasP), Actor-Network Theory, human resource management practices and safety as practice. Offering a unique insider insight to decision-making and strategy within an organization, the chapters demonstrate how practices are constructed and implemented for a range of systems and policies. Employing an ethnographic approach also gives an opportunity to assess the interpretation and deployment of procedures, policies and practices in order to control and achieve conformity to organizational goals. It satisfies a demand for richer descriptions of managerial practices in situ that can be used to challenge and critique traditional approaches, and guide researchers to apply an SasP and ANT perspective in other organizational settings.