Work Death And Life Itself

This unusual and thought-provoking work questions current mainstream approaches to organizational psychology. Grounded in organizational symbolism the author depicts the potential meaning of work in the broader context of life and death. Thus Siever's book is a fundamental critique of motivation, participation and leadership research. With human mortality in mind, organization and management appear in a different light: motivation as a surrogate for meaning, participation and management as a quarrel about immortality, and leadership as a perpetuation of immaturity. Sievers advocates a "management of wisdom".

A thought-provoking argument that consciousness—more widespread than previously assumed—is the feeling of being alive, not a type of computation or a clever hack In The Feeling of Life Itself, Christof Koch offers a straightforward definition of consciousness as any subjective experience, from the most mundane to the most exalted—the feeling of being alive. Psychologists study which cognitive operations underpin a given conscious perception. Neuroscientists track the neural correlates of consciousness in the brain, the organ of the mind. But why the brain and not, say, the liver? How can the brain—three pounds of highly excitable matter, a piece of furniture in the universe, subject to the same laws of physics as any other piece—give rise to subjective experience? Koch argues that what is needed to answer these questions is a quantitative theory that starts with experience and proceeds to the brain. In The Feeling of Life Itself, Koch outlines such a theory, based on integrated information. Koch describes how the theory explains many facts about the neurology of consciousness and how it has been used to build a clinically useful consciousness meter. The theory predicts that many, and perhaps all, animals experience the sights and sounds of life; consciousness is much more widespread than conventionally assumed. Contrary to received wisdom, however, Koch argues that programmable computers will not have consciousness. Even a perfect software model of the brain is not conscious. Its simulation is fake consciousness. Consciousness is not a special type of computation—it is not a clever hack. Consciousness is about being.

`The book is a good read. Gabriel has an engaging writing style, liberally interspersed with vignettes, cases, and quotes.... While the reader may not agree with some of what Gabriel is espousing, the author presents his material in a non-judgemental manner.... And who knows ? Maybe Gabriel is foreshadowing some new directions in organizational theory and even new research methodology′ - Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology This book is a comprehensive and systematic examination of the insights psychoanalysis can offer to the study of organizations and organizational behaviour. Richly illustrated with examples, Yiannis Gabriel′s exhaustive study provides fresh understandings of the role of creativity, control mechanisms, leadership, culture, and emotions in organizations. Core theories are explained at length and there is a chapter on research strategies. Extensive reference is made to practical cases, and there is a review of the key debates.

The Theory and Philosophy of Organizations makes a major contribution to the debate on the status of organizational theory as a discipline. The volume is divided into three sections exploring issues under the headings `theory', `anasis' and `philosophy'. In each, the limitations of `traditional' or `scientific' organizational paradigms are illuminated and new forms of interpretation offered.

This book argues that media and capitalism no longer exist as separated entities, and posits three reasons why one can no longer exist without the other. Firstly, mass media have become indispensable to capitalism due to the media’s ability to sell the commodities of mass consumerism. Media capitalism also creates pro-capital attitudes among a target population and establishes an ideological hegemony. Thirdly, media capitalism provides mass deception to hide the pathologies of capitalism, which include mass poverty, rising inequalities, and the acceleration of global warming. To illuminate this, the book’s historical chapter traces the emergence of media capitalism. Its subsequent chapters show how media capitalism has infiltrated the public sphere, society, schools, universities, the world of work and finally, democracy. The book concludes by outlining how societies can transition from media capitalism to a post-media- capitalist society.

The question that Paul set before the ancient church in Corinth -- Do you not recognize that Jesus Christ is in and among you? (2 Cor 13:5) -- remains a critical question for the church today. This commentary by Mark Seifrid seeks to hear Paul s message afresh and communicate it to our time. Seifrid offers a unified reading of 2 Corinthians, which has often been regarded as a composite of excerpts and fragments. He argues that Paul s message is directed at the practical atheism of the Corinthian church -- the hidden heresy that assumes God s saving work in the world may be measured by outward standards of success and achievement. Like all of the Pillar volumes, Seifrid s commentary on 2 Corinthians offers careful grammatical analysis and exegesis with clear pastoral application.

The Three Faces of Leadership takes readers inside the minds of CEOs who have been celebrated by the Harvard Business Review over the last decade of the twentieth century. Drawing on interviews with these famous CEOs, Mary Jo Hatch, Monika Kostera and Andrzej K. Kozminski demonstrate how business leaders today use aesthetics, specifically storytelling, dramatizing and mythmaking, to lead their companies successfully. They look at how they inspire organizations through their creativity, virtue and faith, and thus show the faces of the artist and priest alongside the technical and rational face of the manager. The Three Faces of Leadership features clear and accessible explanations of the aesthetic philosophy of management: as applied to the concepts of creativity, imagination, courage, virtue, inspiration, faith and ethics. It presents techniques for developing these qualities as an essential part of leadership; together with the capacity to communicate them to others. Aesthetic leadership practices are linked to organizational culture, change, vision, values and identity. In this way, the book encourages students and executives to align the creative and spiritual aspects of business with their technical training and practice.