Organization/Representation: Work and Organization in Popular Culture

The representation of organizations and working life in the popular media signifies, but also helps shape, contemporary practice and institutions. Organization-Representation unravels the complex social relationship between organization and its representation, offering new insights into the interaction between the popular images we create and receive, and the power relations that govern society, working life and culture. Representations in Hollywood movies, ethnographic and documentary films, children’s literature and the popular and ‘quality’ press replicate the power structures they supposedly describe and consequently help shape contemporary realities. This volume offers rich insights into the relations between culture, power and work. It goes beyond such purely ontological questions to show convincingly that a critical analysis of the relationship between popular culture and the nature of organizational life enhances our understanding of both.