Organizations Books

Any reader who ever observed an institution become ridiculous, be it university, church, political party or office committee, will laugh out loud at Paul Levitt's humorous story about Bogus U. As a mafia gang member accidentally becomes president of a university and changes the policies for the better, we laugh (knowingly?) at the subterfuge involving a champion football team (if only...) and a question of tenure for an incompetent but potentially influential professor. We enjoy the intigue among administators--for power and sexual conquests. We laugh at parallels between University politics and the mafia. This book offers a bawdy, funny read about all of us who are compromised, all of us who ever served on a faculty or even a committee. It is a funny and scathing look at hypocrisies, rationalizations and absurdities. You are invited to read it--and smile.

To University of Colorado Professor Emeritus Peter Michelson's characterization of this work as 'a delightful romp through the sins of everyone's alma mater,' I wish to add that only insofar as the main institutional target of this trenchant satire is representative can it be thus generalized. The cover art, settings, and scathing indictments of the faculty and administration compel the conclusion that this work is a trenchant and effective satire on the university where its author has taught and serially chaired the English and Writing departments for the past 45 years or so, not counting sabbaticals -- namely, the Univerity of Colorado. During those years, the makeup of the student body has changed from two-thirds out-of-staters to at least 80% Colorado residents, but the nature of the school seems little changed from 1968, when it was featured as a playboy institution by the magazine of that name, which cited the Drama department's production of Shakespeare's Macbeth that featured totally nude witches. Graduating students invited to faculty parties are known to have commented on the lack of intellectual conversation. Anyone jogging at six in the morning is likely to see the adulterers returning home. Its passion but lightly disguised, this novel is a damning but highly readable and enjoyable indictment of American higher education as embodied in one thoroughly portrayed institution.

The title is a misnomer: Although the authors do indeed suggest how to "break through the chains of organizational structure", they provide an enlightening explanation of four different types of boundaries (vertical, horizontal, external, and geographic) which give definition to any organization. They do not advocate the total elimination of these boundaries (which is impossible, anyway); rather, they suggest how to rearrange them so that an organization can thrive. For the authors, there is what they call "A New World Order":

"In living organisms, membranes exist to give the organization shape and definition. They have sufficient structural strength to prevent the organism from dissolving into an amorphous mess....Like a living organism, the boundaryless organization also evolves and grows, and the placement of boundaries may shift....Because the boundaryless organization is a living continuum, not a fixed state, the ongoing management challenge is to find the right balance of boundaryless behavior, to determine how permeable to make boundaries, and where to place them."

This brief excerpt from the first chapter correctly suggests the purpose of this remarkable book: To explain HOW to meet that challenge. The material is presented within four parts plus a conclusion. The first explains how to achieve "free movement up and down" by crossing vertical boundaries; the second explains how to achieve "free movement side to side" by crossing horizontal boundaries; the third explains how to achieve "free movement along the value chain" by crossing external boundaries; and in the fourth part, they explain how to achieve "free global movement" by crossing geographic boundaries." Then in the Conclusion, the authors discuss "Making It Happen: Leading Toward the Boundaryless Organization." The authors also include a series of six questionnaires. By completing each in sequence, the reader is able to determine (a) where her or his organization is now located relative to "the boundaryless paradigm", and (b), what is needed to eliminate the "gap" between where it is now and where it should be.

Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to read The Boundaryless Organization Field Guide. It contains a wealth of hands-on set of diagnostic instruments, exercises, and tools as well as a disk with presentation slides in Powerpoint format.

The fieldbook is written in a very user friendly way. It provides information that can be used in various ways - presentation slides, workshops, surveys and inteviews. Each tool is explained in great detail - how to use it and the intended purpose. I borrowed a copy from our corporate libary and liked it so much I will order my own personal copy!

This is a superb book. It is scholarly yet passionate, courageous yet level-headed. The book argues that the Solidarity labor movement in Poland in 1980-81 was created by workers of the Gdansk shipyards rather than by Warsaw and Krakow intellectuals. However, the intellectuals supplied self-serving interpretations of Solidarity, and these were accepted as fact. Goodwyn shows that ever since the failed bread strikes in 1956, 1970, and 1976, the workers of Poland continued to devise methods by which to oppose the communist regime. In 1980, they succeeded: the so-called "occupational strike" in the shipyards made it impossible for the police to disperse the workers, while a system of human couriers allowed workers from various enterprises (as many as 370 factories, at the end of August 1980) to communicate when telephones were cut off by the communists. Finally, in August 1980, the workers presented to the government the centerpiece of all their demands: the demand for free labor unions. This was a move which the government of Soviet-occupied Poland did not expect. Polish intellectuals in Warsaw advised against it. The workers stood firm--and the government yielded. For a year, there was jubilation in Poland. But at Moscow's bidding, the Soviet-controlled government in Warsaw arrested thousands of Solidarity leaders in December 1981. For seven years, Poles lived under martial law. Under martial law, hundreds of people were tortured or "merely" beaten, thousands lost their lives because elementary medical help was impossible to obtain.
In later chapters, Goodwyn points out that it was "citizens' committees" and not the Solidarity labor union that produced delegates to the Round Table talks. Among the delegates, the intelligentsia members were overrepresented (195 out of some 240 delegates), while the workers who created Solidarity had a few dozen delegates. Since that time, the Warsaw intelligentsia was disproportionately credited with creating and aiding Solidarity, whereas worker activists slid into oblivion. The situation further worsened when factories began to close down because of restructuring, and millions of working men and women lost their jobs. The intelligentsia kept theirs: white collar workers were not much affected by restructuring of steel mills, shipyards, and cotton mills.
A magnificently lucid tome that provides real insights into the workings of democracy. If you are concerned with the erosion of democratic institutions in the United States, read this book.

As a student in Larry Goodwyn's social movements class, I have been reading this book to study his philosophy and methodology. It's incredibly interesting and enlightening, and sure to infuriate anyone with a vested interest in the convential wisdom about movement building in general and Solidarity in particular. I'd recommend it to anyone who can get their hands on a copy (& let me know if you can!)...

Recieved item on time, right when we were told it would arrive. Book in very good condition.

I am a Master's in School Counseling student. This is the recommended theory for school counselors. I will use this as a reference in school and once I begin working in the field.

As a student looking to become a high school guidance counselor, I found this to be one of the best texts from both a practical and educational point of view.

It focuses on the real issue of counseling, how to meet the needs of the client. Each explanation is backed by popular theories, yet the focus remains solution based.

The key to the book is how to be a catalyst in change utilizing the client's perspective of the problem. The authors have done a wonderful job of explaining the school practitioner's role as a catalyst, or an instrument of change.

Too often, I believe counselors try to fit the client into a preconceived box of neurosis. In fact, this book counters that train of thought and shows the reader how to address the client's problem as a unique opportunity to enable the client to find his/her own solution.

I highly recommend this book to students, practicing counselors, parents and teachers.

If you work with children and adolescents and also wish to apply solution-focused thinking to the school context you must read this book. Each page offers highly practical and clear to understand ideas. Incredibly, I would say that it appeals equally to the novice and experienced solution-focused worker. Excellent indeed. Furthermore, John Murphy's workshop presentation, based on the content of the book, is an unmissable experience, worth attending.

Art's book is an excellent resource and useful roadmap to successful selling with proven theory. The book is jam-packed with never seen before sales models and examples of implementing them.

I had the pleasure of working for Mr. Wilson while I was in college, so I have a bit of firsthand experience with his methods. I'm not a businessman or a salesman, but from a purely lay perspective, I often marvelled at his gift for taking complex, subtle ideas and explaining them in accessible ways.

Mr. Wilson and his colleagues have made careers out of teaching their selling methods and strategies to others; this alone speaks to the soundness of their methods. This is certainly a book that should be on the shelf of all sales professionals, and will doubtlessly yield extraordinary results for anyone who employs its methods.

Collaboration is the way to help students overcome a variety of issues they face in today's tough world. By learning to work together in a safe environment, they develop lifelong skills that will help them with all interpersonal relationships. Home and community and school need to work together to educate children. McCaleb offers reasons why and how to accomplish the important task of interweaving the culture of these 3 elements in the children's lives. Sharing stories and creating books together is a great way to come together and also to create lasting memories.

This book provides the reader with classroom ideas to incorporate the family, communities, students, and teacher in the school curriculum. The teachers in the book suggest many different tactics to approach very diverse students and their families. McCaleb wants the students to realize that they are important in society, by showing them how others have succeeded. Students bring many experiences into the classroom, and teachers should build from those experiences to make their education more meaningful for the student

"This book explains how to use behavioral competencies to link human resource (HR) systems to an organization's purpose. This linkage will help organizations better communicate to associates about how they can effectively guide their own actions...The book is written for human resource professionals, who strive to link their organization's core competencies, capabilities, values, and priorities to its human resource applications...You can expect this book to recognize and reinforce important distinctions between an organization's strategic core competencies and its individual competencies and skills. Although these distinctions are obvious to business strategists, they are a source of confusion for many in human resources who want to use competencies to reflect vision, culture, and values" (from the Preface).

In this context, Paul C. Green divides his book into two main parts:

I. Clarifying Competencies: In this part;

* He argues that "robust competencies help you define what was done, what is being done, and what needs to be done." And hence, he sets the stage for building robust competencies by identifying the ambiguities, challenges, and rewards of using competencies.

* He explores the different meanings of competencies that are used in organizations and research. And he argues that "HR competency system must be job related and should reflect core competencies, capabilities, core values, and priorities."

* He discusses operationalizing performance skills to enable you to use behavioral observation, description, and inference to communicate clearly what a person needs to do to do a job well. Here he says that "a behavior is an action that you can observe, describe, and verify."

* He explores how the identity of an organization can become the target for alignment, and discusses how an organization's identity can be reflected in and reinforced by interviews, appraisal, coaching, and training.

II. Linking Competencies to Human Resource Systems: In this part, after briefly discussing perception-driven, experience-driven, attribute-driven, and behavior-driven approaches, he offers behavioral approach to link interviews, appraisals, coaching, and training to the identity of an organization. It emphasizes a systemic, job-related approach to support the effectiveness and defensibility of an HR system. He argues that "the linkage of HR applications is easier when the organization consistently uses a behavioral approach. Once behavioral language is used in one part of an HR system, it can be expanded to other applications."

Finally, he says that "the best answers to questions about core competencies, capabilities, core values, and priorities come from real experiences in applying them. Today, each answer is just an opinion at one point in time. However, the big question for the future will be: How can I link HR systems to my organization's identity? At present the most useful answers are those that emphasize a behavioral approach, job relatedness, nimbleness, and open mindedness."

Highly recommended.

Dr. Green demonstrates that the job analysis which is the basis of behavioral interviews, is also the cornerstone upon which competencies, PD's, interviews, coaching, performance measurement, and training are all built. Once the use of behavioral thinking is understood by the manager, the development of the tools and methods for selecting, developing, and managing successful people will flow from the analysis of the behaviors needed for success in any specific job.

Dr. Green goes beyond the individual in applying behavioral understandings and tools, taking them to the organizational level as well. He clearly demonstrates the linkage between high performing individuals, and high performing organizations.

A must read for any manager using Behavioral Interviewing, any trainer teaching Behavioral Interviewing, or any manager tired of spending a disproportionate share of their time and energy dealing with poor performance, low productivity, and poor morale.

While you can easily read it in a few days, you will want your own copy to highlight, make notes in, and refer to from time to time as you grow as a manager.

Based on Igor Ansoff award winning study, this book is an invaluable reference for all executives who are interested in strategy and living organizations of the 21st century.

This exceptional book presents an in-depth, scholarly examination of flexible organizations. It provides a framework (or strategic approach) to guide decision makers in developing an organization able to quickly adapt to hyper-competitive challenges. The author shows that to be successful, organizations require a paradoxical balance between flexibility (viewed as the managerial task) and sufficient stability to exploit change (seen as the organization design task). In other words, firms need to balance creativity, innovation, and speed with clarity of focus, coordination and control. This is an extraordinarily thoughtful work that delves deeply into this complex strategic challenge. It includes a comprehensive questionnaire for measuring the environment and the organization in terms of turbulence, flexibility and other dimensions. Highly recommended to all executives engaged in organizational design and strategic planning, and who are willing to tackle an intellectually! demanding book that is well worth the effort.

When I first picked up this book, I was afraid that I wouldn't understand the topic very well. However, I found that I was hooked from the start. The issues of dysfunction that come from working in corporate america have at times been devastating for me, yet the book helped me heal the internal rifts in my own thinking AND CREATED AN OPPORTUNITY FOR ME TO UNDERSTAND MY OWN ABILITY TO BALANCE ME IN CONJUNCTION WITH MY PROFESSIONAL AND PERSONAL LIFE CHOICES.

The dual process paradigms were helpful to me and I found that it empowered me, my team, my life partner.

Thank you for the book.

You might want to try the other books by this man, they are just as good.

Theme of this work is the need to bring together the decisions of organizations and the choice making of people to avoid dysfunctional behavior. Using research, the author delves into the psychology of the relationships between people and organization. This is a thoughtful, highly informative book.