Introduction

This book aims to demonstrate the continuing relevance of Aristotle to understanding contemporary organizations. As the title of this book suggests, the term ‘organization’ is understood broadly, so that it encompasses work organizations in both public and private sectors, and also a very wide variety of other social forms: from small voluntary associations and communities through to society as a whole. This is consistent with the use of organization in the comparatively new discipline of critical management studies (CMS), which challenges various hegemonies in relation to business and management. One such hegemony has been a narrow construction of ‘organization’ that limits its application to work, and concerns itself with the effectiveness of private corporations. Take, for instance, this parenthetic definition of organization which opens the first section of a popular text in organizational behaviour (this extract is from its twelfth edition): Let’s begin by briefly defining the terms manager and organization — the place where managers work. (Robbins and Judge, 2007: 4)