Organisational forms and managerial work
The project will ask whether the nature of organizational forms and managerial work has changed significantly in the period following the 2008-9 global financial crisis.
It involves a comparative international study of corporations operating under three economic groupings – Liberal Market, Coordinated and BRIC.
This project will examine the extent to which particular corporate trends have continued following the global financial crisis or whether the corporate environment has now changed significantly.
In particular, the project will examine the implications for middle managers’ working and non-working lives in large organizations operating under the so-called ‘new capitalism’ of hybrid (bureaucratic/post-bureaucratic) organizational forms.
It will compare case examples of corporate organizational forms and the nature of managerial work therein across six countries which are exemplars of (i) liberal market economies (UK and US); (ii) coordinated market economies (Germany, Japan); and (iii) the BRIC economies (Brazil, China).
The focus will be upon understanding the contemporary nature of organizational forms in these countries and the implications that arise for managerial work (especially the work of middle managers).
Issues to be researched in regards of the latter include important societal ones of the nature of working time, role intensification; work-life balance; job security; careers; labour markets; and managers’ identification with work and their organisations.