Mike Bresnen
Biographic Data
| ID | 328346 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mike Bresnen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Mike |
| FAMILY NAME | Bresnen |
| SIGNATURE | BRESNEN M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Manchester Metropolitan University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3295-8235 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 16 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 97 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 16 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1985 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Getting your message across? The evolution of leader vision and managed pluralisation of leadership
Whereas vision is central to understanding leadership influence in organisations, it has mostly been explored either in predominantly hierarchical or predominantly pluralistic contexts. We know relatively little about how the processual dynamics, content and sources of vision evolve when senior teams are undergoing a transition from hierarchical to collective leadership. Drawing upon a qualitative longitudinal study undertaken within a UK-based a…
Inter-identity threats and opportunities shaping professional influence for the Allied Health Profession (AHP) healthcare workforce
Reinforced or disrupted ideal worker norms in the pandemic? Analyzing the gendered impact of the pandemic on professional specialisms in a Professional Services Firm in Kuwait
This paper uses a critical case study of a subsidiary of a multinational Professional Services Firm (PSF) in Kuwait to explore whether new organizational routines and ways of working in the pandemic created opportunities for gendered ideal worker norms to be challenged or modified. We revisited research findings from an in‐depth case study conducted in the pre‐Covid context where differentiated patterns of gendered ideal norms across Consulting, …
Ambiguous workarounds in policy piloting in the NHS
Pilot projects are increasingly used as a mechanism to enact organisational change, particularly government policy. Information technology's centrality to organisations often makes it key to the introduction of new processes. However, it can give rise to workarounds as employees circumvent impediments it presents by rejecting its prescribed use. Workarounds tend to be conceptualised dichotomously, as either ‘good’ problem solving, or ‘bad’ subver…
On the character of the new entrepreneurial National Health Service in England
Recent health care reforms in England, combined with financial austerity, have accelerated both corporatization and commercialization in the English National Health Service (NHS) and this has encouraged greater public sector entrepreneurialism (PSE). We advance this argument by examining the meaning and experience of corporatization in this sector, illustrating our argument with qualitative data from a specialist hospital at the forefront of this…
Managing death
Delivery of end-of-life care has gained prominence in the UK, driven by a focus upon the importance of patient choice. In practice choice is influenced by several factors, including the guidance and conduct of healthcare professionals, their different understandings of what constitutes 'a good death', and contested ideas of who is best placed to deliver this. We argue that the attempt to elicit and respond to patient choice is shaped in practice …
Hybrid managers, career narratives and identity work
While hybrid managers are increasingly important in contemporary organizations (especially in the public sector), we know little about why or how they become hybrid managers, or how this is shaped by the interplay of professional experience and organizational circumstances. In pursuit of a more variegated, contextualized and dynamic understanding of hybrid management, this article focuses on how individuals transition into managerial hybrids, emp…
Leadership talk
The economic downturn that began in 2008 led to massive cuts in spending targeted at managerial activities in the UK National Health Service (NHS). Although the appellation “manager” once conferred status in the NHS, managers have borne the brunt of reform and the term itself is in danger of falling into disrepute. Drawing upon perspectives on leadership that emphasize its constitutive nature, we examine the growing alternative emergent culture o…
Journals à la mode? Twenty years of living alongside Mode 2 and the new production of knowledge
This article considers the institutional and political background to the life of Organization associated with continuing debates about ‘modes of scientific knowledge’ and the supposed rise of Mode 2. It suggests that Organization should provide space for a more fully theorized and politically aware position of the new—and old—production of knowledge. It does so by, first, critically exploring the substantial volume of work that continues to insis…
The object of knowledge
Understanding innovation in the biomedical field requires an appreciation of its highly interactive nature and of the many professional and organizational boundaries that create barriers to interaction and the sharing of knowledge. Yet, research to date has directed much less attention to understanding the intricacies of interactive biomedical innovation in practice, than it has to exploring the factors influencing innovation at an institutional …
Why Neo-Disciplinary? Why Now
Modes of Organizing, Power/Knowledge Shifts and the Case of the Conference
The Politics of Management Knowledge
An Organizational Perspective on Changing Buyer-Supplier Relations
This paper takes a critical look at current research on buyer- supplier relations and argues that the research to date is limited in its helpfulness in understanding contemporary changes in inter-organizational relations in three important respects. First, owing to the concentration of research effort in particular industrial sectors and cases, it is hard to extrapolate the findings to industry in general. Second, an oversimplification of the str…
Qualitative Research and the Study of Leadership
This article argues that the introduction of qualitative research methods into the study of leadership may improve this area of research by facilitating the introduction of a wider range of contextual variables into the investigation of leadership styles. It is also contended that such variables have the advantage of being grounded in people's experiences and are therefore more accesible to practitioners. These points are developed from the autho…
The Flexibility of Recruitment in the Construction Industry
Common sense views of the construction industry tend to characterise its labour market processes as haphazard, if not anarchic, and requiring reform through formalisation. In contrast, a sociological perspective might point to the possibility of an underlying rationality beneath the apparent confusion. Industry data suggest a growing degree of casualism in construction, in the sense that employers and self-employed have become a significantly lar…
Qualitative Research and the Study of Leadership
This article argues that the introduction of qualitative research methods into the study of leadership may improve this area of research by facilitating the introduction of a wider range of contextual variables into the investigation of leadership styles. It is also contended that such variables have the advantage of being grounded in people's experiences and are therefore more accesible to practitioners. These points are developed from the autho…
The object of knowledge
Understanding innovation in the biomedical field requires an appreciation of its highly interactive nature and of the many professional and organizational boundaries that create barriers to interaction and the sharing of knowledge. Yet, research to date has directed much less attention to understanding the intricacies of interactive biomedical innovation in practice, than it has to exploring the factors influencing innovation at an institutional …
Hybrid managers, career narratives and identity work
While hybrid managers are increasingly important in contemporary organizations (especially in the public sector), we know little about why or how they become hybrid managers, or how this is shaped by the interplay of professional experience and organizational circumstances. In pursuit of a more variegated, contextualized and dynamic understanding of hybrid management, this article focuses on how individuals transition into managerial hybrids, emp…
The Flexibility of Recruitment in the Construction Industry
Common sense views of the construction industry tend to characterise its labour market processes as haphazard, if not anarchic, and requiring reform through formalisation. In contrast, a sociological perspective might point to the possibility of an underlying rationality beneath the apparent confusion. Industry data suggest a growing degree of casualism in construction, in the sense that employers and self-employed have become a significantly lar…
On the character of the new entrepreneurial National Health Service in England
Recent health care reforms in England, combined with financial austerity, have accelerated both corporatization and commercialization in the English National Health Service (NHS) and this has encouraged greater public sector entrepreneurialism (PSE). We advance this argument by examining the meaning and experience of corporatization in this sector, illustrating our argument with qualitative data from a specialist hospital at the forefront of this…
Managing death
Delivery of end-of-life care has gained prominence in the UK, driven by a focus upon the importance of patient choice. In practice choice is influenced by several factors, including the guidance and conduct of healthcare professionals, their different understandings of what constitutes 'a good death', and contested ideas of who is best placed to deliver this. We argue that the attempt to elicit and respond to patient choice is shaped in practice …
Reinforced or disrupted ideal worker norms in the pandemic? Analyzing the gendered impact of the pandemic on professional specialisms in a Professional Services Firm in Kuwait
This paper uses a critical case study of a subsidiary of a multinational Professional Services Firm (PSF) in Kuwait to explore whether new organizational routines and ways of working in the pandemic created opportunities for gendered ideal worker norms to be challenged or modified. We revisited research findings from an in‐depth case study conducted in the pre‐Covid context where differentiated patterns of gendered ideal norms across Consulting, …
Leadership talk
The economic downturn that began in 2008 led to massive cuts in spending targeted at managerial activities in the UK National Health Service (NHS). Although the appellation “manager” once conferred status in the NHS, managers have borne the brunt of reform and the term itself is in danger of falling into disrepute. Drawing upon perspectives on leadership that emphasize its constitutive nature, we examine the growing alternative emergent culture o…
Ambiguous workarounds in policy piloting in the NHS
Pilot projects are increasingly used as a mechanism to enact organisational change, particularly government policy. Information technology's centrality to organisations often makes it key to the introduction of new processes. However, it can give rise to workarounds as employees circumvent impediments it presents by rejecting its prescribed use. Workarounds tend to be conceptualised dichotomously, as either ‘good’ problem solving, or ‘bad’ subver…
The Politics of Management Knowledge
The Flexibility of Recruitment in the Construction Industry
Common sense views of the construction industry tend to characterise its labour market processes as haphazard, if not anarchic, and requiring reform through formalisation. In contrast, a sociological perspective might point to the possibility of an underlying rationality beneath the apparent confusion. Industry data suggest a growing degree of casualism in construction, in the sense that employers and self-employed have become a significantly lar…
Qualitative Research and the Study of Leadership
This article argues that the introduction of qualitative research methods into the study of leadership may improve this area of research by facilitating the introduction of a wider range of contextual variables into the investigation of leadership styles. It is also contended that such variables have the advantage of being grounded in people's experiences and are therefore more accesible to practitioners. These points are developed from the autho…
An Organizational Perspective on Changing Buyer-Supplier Relations
This paper takes a critical look at current research on buyer- supplier relations and argues that the research to date is limited in its helpfulness in understanding contemporary changes in inter-organizational relations in three important respects. First, owing to the concentration of research effort in particular industrial sectors and cases, it is hard to extrapolate the findings to industry in general. Second, an oversimplification of the str…
Modes of Organizing, Power/Knowledge Shifts and the Case of the Conference
The Politics of Management Knowledge
Why Neo-Disciplinary? Why Now
The object of knowledge
Understanding innovation in the biomedical field requires an appreciation of its highly interactive nature and of the many professional and organizational boundaries that create barriers to interaction and the sharing of knowledge. Yet, research to date has directed much less attention to understanding the intricacies of interactive biomedical innovation in practice, than it has to exploring the factors influencing innovation at an institutional …
Journals à la mode? Twenty years of living alongside Mode 2 and the new production of knowledge
This article considers the institutional and political background to the life of Organization associated with continuing debates about ‘modes of scientific knowledge’ and the supposed rise of Mode 2. It suggests that Organization should provide space for a more fully theorized and politically aware position of the new—and old—production of knowledge. It does so by, first, critically exploring the substantial volume of work that continues to insis…
Leadership talk
The economic downturn that began in 2008 led to massive cuts in spending targeted at managerial activities in the UK National Health Service (NHS). Although the appellation “manager” once conferred status in the NHS, managers have borne the brunt of reform and the term itself is in danger of falling into disrepute. Drawing upon perspectives on leadership that emphasize its constitutive nature, we examine the growing alternative emergent culture o…
Hybrid managers, career narratives and identity work
While hybrid managers are increasingly important in contemporary organizations (especially in the public sector), we know little about why or how they become hybrid managers, or how this is shaped by the interplay of professional experience and organizational circumstances. In pursuit of a more variegated, contextualized and dynamic understanding of hybrid management, this article focuses on how individuals transition into managerial hybrids, emp…
Managing death
Delivery of end-of-life care has gained prominence in the UK, driven by a focus upon the importance of patient choice. In practice choice is influenced by several factors, including the guidance and conduct of healthcare professionals, their different understandings of what constitutes 'a good death', and contested ideas of who is best placed to deliver this. We argue that the attempt to elicit and respond to patient choice is shaped in practice …
Ambiguous workarounds in policy piloting in the NHS
Pilot projects are increasingly used as a mechanism to enact organisational change, particularly government policy. Information technology's centrality to organisations often makes it key to the introduction of new processes. However, it can give rise to workarounds as employees circumvent impediments it presents by rejecting its prescribed use. Workarounds tend to be conceptualised dichotomously, as either ‘good’ problem solving, or ‘bad’ subver…
On the character of the new entrepreneurial National Health Service in England
Recent health care reforms in England, combined with financial austerity, have accelerated both corporatization and commercialization in the English National Health Service (NHS) and this has encouraged greater public sector entrepreneurialism (PSE). We advance this argument by examining the meaning and experience of corporatization in this sector, illustrating our argument with qualitative data from a specialist hospital at the forefront of this…
Reinforced or disrupted ideal worker norms in the pandemic? Analyzing the gendered impact of the pandemic on professional specialisms in a Professional Services Firm in Kuwait
This paper uses a critical case study of a subsidiary of a multinational Professional Services Firm (PSF) in Kuwait to explore whether new organizational routines and ways of working in the pandemic created opportunities for gendered ideal worker norms to be challenged or modified. We revisited research findings from an in‐depth case study conducted in the pre‐Covid context where differentiated patterns of gendered ideal norms across Consulting, …
Getting your message across? The evolution of leader vision and managed pluralisation of leadership
Whereas vision is central to understanding leadership influence in organisations, it has mostly been explored either in predominantly hierarchical or predominantly pluralistic contexts. We know relatively little about how the processual dynamics, content and sources of vision evolve when senior teams are undergoing a transition from hierarchical to collective leadership. Drawing upon a qualitative longitudinal study undertaken within a UK-based a…
Inter-identity threats and opportunities shaping professional influence for the Allied Health Profession (AHP) healthcare workforce
Political science (12 works) · Sociology (12 works) · Public relations (8 works) · Law (7 works) · Psychology (7 works) · Business (5 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Epistemology (5 works) · Law (5 works) · Social science (5 works)