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This article argues that, contrary to its detractors, essentialism is a necessary concept in understanding resistance to managerial discourses. The article first suggests that essentialism, under a critical realist framing, need not suffer from the reductionism or determinism found in many 19th and 20th Century essentialized accounts of the self, arguing instead that the concept adds analytical power to explanatory theorizing. Next, taking three common post-Foundational presentations of resistance to managerialist discourses, the article proposes that, despite protestations to the contrary, each relies on essentialist representations of both discourse and the self. The article then seeks to tackle the 'problem' of essentialism head-on by showing its potential for both framing resistance and building bridges between the post-Foundational, realist and natural worlds.

This article uses Bourdieu's concept of habitus and a relational view of agency to illuminate the role of the actor in negotiating moral norms in organizations. Drawing upon case-study evidence from a major start-up company, the article illustrates how power, time and agency intertwine in a series of `moral encounters'. It is argued that the outcomes of these reflexive negotiations feed into the creation of dispositions which inform the creation and interpretation of subsequent action.

This article introduces two papers in a special section of this journal. It explains why realist studies of oppression, emancipation and resistance are needed. We trace the development of studies in this area, noting their Marxist roots, divergence with post-structural theorising and more recent critical realist advancements. We conclude by highlighting the weaknesses in studies of this area and by arguing that progress is important for understanding how emancipation from oppression might be possible.

Critical realism as an empirical project : a beginner's guide /Joe O'Mahoney and Steve Vincent --Critical realism, research techniques, and research designs /Stephen Ackroyd and Jan Ch. Karlsson --Employing a form of critical realist discourse analysis for identity research : an example from women's talk fo motherhood, childcare, and employment /Wendy Sims-Schouten and Sarah Riley --Researching identity : a critical realist approach /Abigail Marks and Joe O'Mahoney --Critical realism and grounded theory /Steve Kempster and Ken Parry --Critical realism and interviewing subjects /Chris Smith and Tony Elger --Critical realism and ethnography /Chris Rees and Mark Gatenby --Critical realism and the organizational case study : a guide to discovering institutional mechanisms /Steve Vincent and Robert Wapshott --Comparing cases /Ian Kessler and Stephen Bach --Critical realism and international comparative case research /Ayse Saka-Helmhout --Pulling the levers of agency : implementing critical realist action research /Monder Ram, Paul K. Edwards, Trevor Jones, Alex Kiselinchev, and Lovemore Muchenje --History and documents in critical realism /Alistair Mutch --Critical realism and mixed methods research : combining the extensive and intensive at multiple levels /Scott A. Hurrell --Realist synthesis /Joanne Greenhalgh --Probability and models /Malcolm Williams --An appraisal of the contribution of critical realism to qualitative and quantitative research methodology : is dialectics the way forward? /Andrew Brown and John Michael Roberts --Concluding comments /Paul K. Edwards, Steve Vincent, and Joe O'Mahoney.

The endangered loggerhead sea-turtle ( Caretta caretta) nests on the shores of the Mediterranean, but faces threats to its existence from a variety of sources. Answering the question of how this species can survive is complex as it involves examining the relationships between the turtle, its natural environment, local tourists, property developers, conservation organisations, governments and law-makers. We argue that actor-network theory provides a powerful methodology for tracing these relations and identifying crucial actors which enable the survival of this animal. Using a rich ethnography and drawing on insights from 116 interviews, we trace three actor-networks that highlight factors important to the survival of the species. Yet, we also highlight the conceptual difficulties that result from using an actor-network theory ontology for understanding socio-ecological interactions and argue that these may be ameliorated by embedding the actor-network theory methodology within a critical realist ontology. We argue that this engagement between critical realism and actor-network theory offers researchers a powerful method for understanding relations between socio-ecological actors while overcoming some of the theoretical difficulties of actor-network theory.

Meta-analysis has proved increasingly popular in management and organization studies as a way of combining existing empirical quantitative research to generate a statistical estimate of how strongly variables are associated. Whilst a number of studies identify technical, procedural and practical limitations of meta-analyses, none have yet tackled the meta-theoretical flaws in this approach. We deploy critical realist meta-theory to argue that the individual quantitative studies, upon which meta-analysis relies, lack explanatory power because they are rooted in quasi-empiricist meta-theory. This problem, we argue, is carried over in meta-analyses. We then propose a 'critical realist synthesis' as a potential alternative to the use of meta-analysis in organization studies and social science more widely.

Purpose– This paper reflects on the growing trend of engaging management consultancies in implementing operations management innovations in the public sector. Whilst the differences between public and private sector operations have been documented, there is a dearth of material detailing the impact of public sector engagements on the consultancies themselves and the operations management products and services they develop. Drawing on qualitative data, the paper aims to identify both the impact of operations management in the public sector and the impact of this engagement on the consultancies that are involved.Design/methodology/approach– This paper draws on rich, qualitative data from six large management consultancies, amounting to over 48 interviews. An inductive methodology sought to identify both how consultancies have adapted their operations management products and services, and why.Findings– The paper finds that the different context of the public sector provides consultants with considerable challenges when implementing operations management projects. The research shows that public services are often hampered by different cultures, structures, and managerial knowledge and investment patterns. Such constraints have an impact on both the projects being implemented and the relationship between consultants and clients.Originality/value– There are few studies that consider the implementation of operations management in the public sector and fewer still which examine the impact of public sector engagement on the products that consultancies develop. This paper aims to develop understanding in both. At a more theoretical level, the paper contributes to considering operations management through knowledge management literature in seeking to understand how consumers of management knowledge influence its producers.