Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
  1. Home
  2. Books
  3. Constructing Crisis
  • Cited by 38
      • Show more authors
      • You may already have access via personal or institutional login
    • Select format
    • Publisher:
      Cambridge University Press
      Publication date:
      23 August 2019
      05 September 2019
      ISBN:
      9781108551663
      9781108427357
      9781108446082
      DOI:
      https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108551663
      Dimensions:
      (228 x 152 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      0.62kg, 316 Pages
      Dimensions:
      (228 x 152 mm)
      Weight & Pages:
      0.51kg, 316 Pages
      • Subjects:
      Organisational Sociology, Organisation Studies, Management, Sociology
    You may already have access via personal or institutional login
    • Selected: Digital
    Add to cart View cart Buy from Cambridge.org
    Subjects:
    Organisational Sociology, Organisation Studies, Management, Sociology
    Information

    Book description

    There is no such thing as a crisis. Rather than an actual, corporeal thing, a crisis is a claim asserted from a position of power and influence, intended to shape the understanding of others. A constructed crisis by a leader may or may not be legitimate, and, legitimate or not, the content of a claim alone does not determine whether people decide to believe it. Rather than viewing crises as the result of objective events, Spector demonstrates that leaders impose crises on organizations to strategically assert power and exert control. Interpreting crisis through a critical lens, this interdisciplinary book encompasses not just management and organizational literature, but also sociology, history, cognitive science, and psychology. The resulting wide-ranging, critical, and provocative analysis will appeal in particular to students and academics researching leadership and crisis management.

    Reviews

    ‘This is a remarkable book! Novel and to the point, it also contains didactic discussions about method which blend seamlessly into the flow of its argument.'

    José Santos - INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France

    ‘At last, a thoughtful, critical and contemporary review of the nature of crisis - in an alleged time of crisis. Spector provides a radical lens on an important phenomenon that we should all read, if we really want to understand the contemporary world.'

    Keith Grint - University of Warwick

    ‘This masterfully composed book sheds new light on the dangers of looking at the processes of governing and organizing through the lens of crisis claimed by an untamed executive power. With his profound historical consciousness and focused critical reflexivity, Spector reveals to us the dark underbelly of executive leadership claiming crisis.'

    Milorad Novicevic - University of Mississippi

    ‘In this timely and lively book, Spector takes on the ‘peek-a-boo' notion that every new and unexpected event is a crisis. He argues that crises are claims made by leaders, which in today's post-truth world, we need to verify to prevent them from using fear to accumulate power.'

    Joanne B. Ciulla - Rutgers Business School-Newark and New Brunswick

    ‘Rich in crisis theory, Constructing Crisis is an exceptional, unique, and even profound book … Artfully constructed, Constructing Crisis is must reading for those who study or practice leadership.’

    J. B. Kashner Source: Choice

    ‘… this book will be of great interest to social constructionist scholars and scholars sympathetic to a sociology of knowledge framework. Academics who specialize in crisis may find the conceptual approach refreshing, and the book is written with such engaging and vivid examples that its appeal is likely to extend well beyond the ivory tower.’

    Michael Adorjan Source: International Sociology

    Refine List

    Actions for selected content:

    Select all | Deselect all
    • View selected items
    • Export citations
    • Download PDF (zip)
    • Save to Kindle
    • Save to Dropbox
    • Save to Google Drive

    Save Search

    You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

    Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
    Cancel
    ×

    Contents

    Contents

    Metrics

    Altmetric attention score

    Full text views

    Total number of HTML views: 0
    Total number of PDF views: 0 *
    Loading metrics...

    Book summary page views

    Total views: 0 *
    Loading metrics...

    * Views captured on Cambridge Core between #date#. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

    Usage data cannot currently be displayed.

    Accessibility standard: Unknown

    Why this information is here

    This section outlines the accessibility features of this content - including support for screen readers, full keyboard navigation and high-contrast display options. This may not be relevant for you.

    Accessibility Information

    Accessibility compliance for the PDF of this book is currently unknown and may be updated in the future.