Organizations Books

There are a lot of books on change. It takes a lot for a book about change to stand out from the growing crowd of books on this increasingly important topic. Making Change Irresistible by Ken Hultman stands tall. The book starts right off by focusing on the primary reason why leaders have difficulty in making change happen in organizations-the failure to really understand human beings. He says that leaders who have crunched the numbers, laid out meticulous plans, and positioned organizational resources are often surprised by resistance and tend to see something malevolent or irrational in the resistance, rather than a natural human response that can be addressed in ways that do make change irresistible. My favorite chapter is the one on the practical ways of building trust-a pivotal topic that seems to be left out of most of the other books on change. I also appreciated the liberal sprinkling of self-assessment inventories and checklists because they made the book so specific and practical.

Ken Hultman has written a brilliant and very practical book on dealing with change. His work on motivation updates Maslow and concentrates on ones sense of worth. The change tests and exercises can be used directly and will assist any organization undergoing change. The work on values is also brilliant and gets to the heart of the matter instead of working around the edges.

This book explains in simple language why and how people get their needs met and how that affects change processes. This book is must reading for any organization that truly wants to change and needs to understand the process.

"Making Change Irresistible" is an engaging book with proactive tools and effective strategies that can help executives and managers alike through the murky waters of organizational transition. This book is the most comprehensive work available on the subject of organizational resistance to change. It led me to discover and rethink my assumptions about corporate change resistance. It presents a fresh perspective on a topic of concern to all of today's organizations, and is applicable to both academicians and practitioners. The Change Opinion Survey and The Psychological Need Fulfillment Inventory provide practical methods of preventing, diagnosing, and minimizing the impact of resistance to change in organizations. Both tools are essential for anyone in the process of managing change. Through an in-depth analysis of human behaviour and with techniques that promote personal growth, this book enables readers to become adept at diagnosing resistance to change. The book also helps readers to develop a more positive attitude toward change, while building a concrete plan of action to overcome resistance to change. In short, "Making Change Irresistible" is a must-read for those who study change, and for anyone whose job it is to lead others through the challenge of organizational change.

"This book is intended to serve as a strategic and tactical manual for battling resistance to organizational change." Covers the key concepts in understanding human behaviour and change and provides tools for diagnosing and overcoming resistance. First class. It uses a simple but powerful framework and offers several useful 'instruments' to diagnose core issues in gaining acceptance of change. The book is intended for anyone whose job it is to lead others through change. It is a useful, clear and well-organised resource and the instruments contained in it are also clear and well explained.

Ken's background includes: PhD in Counseling Psychology; staff and line manager; university professor; counselor for individuals, families and groups; and trainer and organizational development consultant to 100 Fortune 500 companies, including major effort with General Electric.

He provides the best analysis of the reasons change is so hard (for most humans), and a fairly good prescription of what can be done to "make change irresistible". The following are a few of the concepts from his book:

Unmet Needs table spans pages 24-27 Unmet Need for Mastery Unmet Need for a Sense of Meaning and Purpose Unmet Need for Acceptance Unmet Need for Respect Each unmet need is followed by 10-20 Symptoms, Consequence, and Potential Solutions

His unmet needs survey encourages a quick assessment of the group and individual attitudes toward change. 60 Statements are assigned a 4, 3, 2, 1, or 0: 4 = strongly disagree down to 0 = Strongly agree People in my organization: Expect too little from themselves Malign each other's character Judge each other on the basis of personal characteristics Disagree about goals/methods Lack opportunities to use their skills Withhold information from each other Discriminate against others Disagree with each other about priorities Lack the necessary knowledge or understanding Try to make each other look bad Subtly make others feel excluded Etc.

He states that there are 4 combinations of Willingness and Ability to Change (pg 97) 1 - Both willing and able to change = best 2 - Able but unwilling to change 3- Willing but unable to change 4 - Both unwilling and unable to change = worst

His strategies for overcoming resistance span pg 171-175 Establishing a positive climate Encourage and interest in improvement Show people how overcoming resistance to change can help them Help people increase their competence Involve people in decisions Cultivate value for teamwork Don't react emotionally Avoid inadvertent mistakes Concentrate on factors within your control

The explanation of his strategies span pages 181-4 15 Strategies aimed at Thinking 10 Strategies aimed at Feelings 12 Strategies aimed at Deciding 10 Strategies aimed at Doing

He has 5-10 strategies for each way of Overcoming the Common Causes of Resistance (pg 188) Which depend on the current their beliefs: They believe their needs are being met already They believe the change will make it harder for them to meet their needs They believe the costs outweigh the benefits They believe the change is unnecessary to avoid or escape a negative situation They believe the change process was handled improperly They believe the change will fail They believe the change is inconsistent with their values

Other books which I have reviewed on change include:

Approaches to Planned Change: orienting perspectives and micro-level interventions R Golembiewski 1993

Champions of Change 1997 Nadler Changing Organizations Raymon Bruce 1998

Competence and Organizational Change - a handbook Shirley Fletcher 1997

Creating Paths of Change - managing issues & resolving problems in organizations Will McWhinney 1997

Getting your Organization to Change - a guide for putting you strategy into action Dennis Jaffe 1999

Harvard Business Review on CHANGE 1998 Lean Transformation: how to change your business into a lean enterprise Bruce Henderson 1999

Leveraging People and Profit: the hard work of soft management Bernard Nagle 1998

Let's Work Smarter, Not Harder: how to engage your entire organization in the execution of change M Caravatta 1998

Managing Changes: exploring the state of the art E. More 1998

Navigating Change: how CEO's, top teams. and boards steer transformations 1998 Edited by Hambrick

Performance-Driven Organizational Change: an organizational portfolio Lex Donaldson 1999

Re-Creating the corporation: a design of organizations for the 21st century R. Ackoff 1999 - great book

Results Based Leadership, David Ulrich et al, 1999 Taking Charge of Change D. Smith

The Challenge of Organizational Change: How Companies Experience It and Leaders Guide It. August 1992

The Change Management Handbook: A roadmap to corporate transformation Lance Berger 1994

The Dance of Change, Senge et al, 1999 - follow up to the fifth discipline

The Leader's Change Handbook: essential guide for setting direction and taking action 1999 J. Conger

The husband and wife team has made another excellent book. I specially liked the way the authors moved the most important (from my viewpoint) topics first. I and probably hundreds of students here in Manila use their book and it's an outstanding source of information.

Used this book with a group of 18 managers on a management course. All acclaimed it as a very easy to understand book, very well written and comprehsive.

For business students this bok may give you an excellent updated view of Information Systems.

okokok

How Information Use The Information System

I also recomend Murray Rothbard's "Education: Free and Compulsory" for in depth historical analysis of government involvement with education. Any politicians that truly give a darn should be reading these books. Democrats rhetoric about "helping the poor" is sickening when you realize how much government involvement in education has specifically hurt the poor.

Many people have proposals for what should be done about education today. Few have looked into history to see what has been successful in the past. This book does that. Few have hard data to back up their theories. This book does. It cites more than one thousand authentic historical and statistical sources. Half of these are original documents (or translations thereof).

The bibliography alone is worth the price of this book. I had been searching for statistics on literacy, and I found so much more here! This book is not only an excellent survey of educational methods throughout history, but also a comprehensive list of sources for future research.

The author is biased toward completely privatized education, and in this book he explains why. He starts where democracy started, in Ancient Greece. Most of us have heard of Athens and Sparta. We know Spartans were dedicated warriors. We know they had to come home from war "with their shield or on it." We know the city state of Sparta was everything, and each individual citizen was dispensable.

We know that Athens, not Sparta, became the capitol in Greece's Golden Age. What I did not know before reading about it in this book was that Athens had no official school system, no regulation of teachers, and no required curriculum. Athenian teachers simply charged parents directly for educating their children. Each teacher specialized in a subject, and the parents simply chose teachers with good reputations who taught the subjects they wanted their children to know. Competition for students kept prices down. Some excellent teachers were wealthy and did not charge, notably Plato and Aristotle. The result of this free market education method was a city that became its country's leader in art, philosophy, and science.

This is but the first exploration in this timely book that examines what has worked in education. My BellaOnline School Reform Forum will be full of references to this book. So far it is the only one of its kind!

I have been doing research on what can be done about the sad state of public education. I read this 391 page book gripped by fascination. Any lover of history, ideas, civilization, or America should read this book. Why are our schools in serious decline? For some of the same reasons the Soviet Union collapsed. Andrew Coulson examines our current system of public education, and argues for revitalization through direct parental control. He looks at times in history when education has been free from state control, and shows that those have been some of the times of greatest cultural flourishing, such as Periclean Athens. He also looks at education in other countries, historically and currently. Public vs. private education in England, and Japan and the Netherlands are particularly of interest. He examines the history of American education, and dispells myths like the idea that people were illiterate until publicly funded education came along. The truth is that the literacy rate was much higher BEFORE Horace Mann first started promoting the idea of state schooling based on the Prussian military model of that time. Coulson also looks at constitutional questions, and deals with the legitimacy of government compelling belief. Anyone who supports the ailing status quo of public education is going to have to come to terms with the formidable research and persuasive arguments presented by Senior Research Associate and former softwear engineer, Andrew Coulson, who devoted four years to producing this book. They will also have to answer the other growing advocates of education liberation, among whom are Thomas Sowell (Inside American Education: The Decline, The Deception, The Dogmas) Stephen Arons (Compelling Belief: The Culture of American Schooling) and Sheldon Richman (The Separation of School and State). I salute Andrew Coulson as having done a magnificent job in writing this well documented and thoughtful study.

We know that our public schools are not providing the quality of education that they should. Market Education does an excellent job of analyzing what the problems with public education are and making thoughtful recommendations for how to improve it. The book should be required reading for anyone interested in improving our children's education.

An intriguing, highly original account of how government-funded schools have driven out superior private schooling, going back to the ancients and concluding with our failed U.S. schools of today. I haven't seen any other book that presents the history of this takeover of the educational market, and how harmful it has been to students in virtually every country and era in which it has occurred. Anyone interested in improving the education of children really needs to read this book. It's a compelling argument for school choice, and it's written in an appealing style by an author who is obviously passionate about his subject. My guess is that public school teachers will find this book particularly enlightening, since it explains a great deal of their frustration with bureaucracy getting in the way of educating kids. Coulson presents many suggestions for moving our educational system towards greater freedom for students, parents, and teachers.

This book gives quite a bit of history as far as religious orders in the U.S. and the kind of work that they have done over the years. I also enjoyed the photos because I feel that they helped me to understand the history better. And it's interesting to see how the nuns and sisters have dressed over the years.

This book was excellent in explaining the history of the many different religious orders of sisters that came to america to educate and heal. Many fine pictures of the different religious habits worn by the sisters. A complete list of colleges and hospitals, and the year they were founded here in the United States. It is the most complete history book representing a sample of the many different orders of sisters, and their good works.

This book was excellent in explaining the history of the many different religious orders of sisters that came to america to educate and heal. Many fine pictures of the different religious habits worn by the sisters. A complete list of colleges and hospitals, and the year they were founded here in the United States. It is the most complete history book representing a sample of the many different orders of sisters, and their good works.

This book has excellent pictures on the nuns in the full traditional habit thru out the book, with quick accounts of the various religious orders. In the back of the book is a dateline of all the religious orders of Sisters and the institutions they founded in the United States such as catholic hospitals, and colleges. Its an wonderful resource on any person researching the history and traditions of the Catholic Sisters (nuns) who have served our country as educators and health care professionals.

A few years ago I took a college course on the history of health care in the US. I noticed that there was a strange neglect to mention all the work that sisters have done in hospital/nursing. It is good to see a book that gives us a good description of this and other work. It is amazing to see these women working against such adversity, and achieving so much. Our usual image of 19th century women does not include administrators and CEOs, but that is what these women were. They served God and their fellow humans in remarkable ways. It made me nastalgic for the days of plentiful vocations.

I was pleasantly surprised to find Dr. Parks' little book online, but quite disappointed that it (I assume) was not available last year when I really could have used it.

Unlike many of the large (and expensive) tomes written to help National Board candidates, this very small book cuts to the chase with succinct and helpful instructions for mentors. Two features which definitely make it an improvement over Parks' book for candidates are the Suggested Activities and the excellent Questioning Techniques, which mentors can utilize with their candidates.

What I really appreciated was the inclusion of some of the finest research available on accomplished teaching (Einhorn), Cognitive Coaching (Costa & Garmston), and Bacal's 'Rules for Facilitating'. These add a depth to this work, which I feel, was lacking in "So, You Want to Become a National Board Certified Teacher?"

Less helpful, but nevertheless nice, are the Mentoring Ethics, the list of websites, and the suggested forms for mentors to use while facilitating their candidates in each of the four entries. I only wish the book had been published in a larger format, since there is a lot of (small print) detailed information on those forms. Oh yes, the Ten Commandments of Mentoring are a nice touch too.

There is no 'fluff' in this book. It is brief, but all in all, very helpful. It presents much of what experienced NBPTS mentors already know, but still helps us fine-tune the process. To new mentors, it will be a Godsend, and is exactly what they've been hoping to find in getting started, but up to now, was not available. Highly recommended.

I will confess I am not a mentor, and although I am a teacher, I am not NB certified, so you may want to stop reading now. But I am in the process of achieving my certification and, needing all the help I can afford (literally), I purchased as much helpful material as I could.

You might ask why I'd want this book, then. Well, I met the author at the 2005 NMSA Conference, and he was very encouraging. So, I wanted to give this, and his book for candidates, a try. Sometime back, after reading the other book, I decided I was NOT ready (you can read that review). Now I am.

Since I haven't passed NB certification, my comments might not exactly be valid. But I found this book sort of 'helpful in reverse'. In other words, I learned what the mentor would teach me if I had one. I appreciated the tips on writing, compiling my portfolio, and as someone else mentioned, the chapter on 'Accomplished teaching' might be the best. Unlike the other book, this one has sample handouts for mentors, but they weren't really helpful in my case.

Maybe I'm just afraid of the process, and need every help I can find, but this book at least made me feel more comfortable. I feel really out of place writing this review, but at least I know what most mentors know, and hopefully, this will enable me to pass.

Good luck to everyone else going through this!

Having read this author's previous work "So, You Want to Become a National Board Certified Teacher?", I was curious to see how different a book geared specifically to mentors could actually be. To be honest, there was some overlap. However, considering that Weekly Reader Press has kept the price low, and the fact that the book contains (far) more research than the first work, I found "Mentoring the NBPTS Candidate" to be one handy little gem.

Especially helpful were the chapters on "How Adults Learn", and "Mentoring Forms". The first appears thoroughly researched, and the information, I found to be especially relevant to any mentor--not just one working with NBPTS candidates. The latter chapter provides information that only an experienced mentor would think of, and will certainly streamline the process for any mentor starting from scratch. I also found the chapter dealing with the unique concerns of 'Advanced Candidates' (those who did not pass) quite helpful.

The premier chapter however, is "What is Accomplished Teaching?". This chapter alone provides cogent information and helpful suggestions for all teachers--not just NBPTS mentors and candidates. While much of this information is not new, it's nicely synthesized into an easy-to-reference format.

Like the author's first work, included is a self-test, this one on the appropriate and inappropriate aspects of mentoring. While a few statements seem subjective, more than a few were specific guidelines from the NBPTS which (I hate to admit) I was honestly not aware of. This test should prove to be an excellent eye-opener to the novice mentor.

In summary, I think "Mentoring the NBPTS Candidate" will be more indispensable to the new mentor than the author's previous work might be to the new candidate. Not because the first book isn't helpful, but because I've seen no other work specifically geared to NBPTS mentors. The two books are quick reads and conversationally written. Considering their inexpensive price, I would recommend putting both on your short list of 'must haves' regarding NBPTS candidacy and mentorship.

Simply put, there are very few pickings when it comes to help for NBPTS mentors. Perhaps because of the need for such, Dr. Parks wrote this book. I don't know, but until something better comes along--and this one's pretty darn good--this book will be the standard.

Let's face it, books on mentoring are not too interesting, but good ones should at least be helpful. As a mentor, I appreciate the author's the low-key 'talk to me' writing style as opposed to pedantic works which read more like Holy writ! But even more, I appreciate the practical and--dare I say it--usable information contained in the suggested activities which make up every chapter. I'm up to here with books long on theory, and short on application!

"Mentoring the NBPTS Candidate" is a 'from the ground up' guide for aspiring mentors, with websites, sample handouts, and checklists for mentors to use in the tutoring process. I heard the author speak at the NMSA Conference last year, and was not aware that this book was in the works. I can say Dr. Parks writes the way he speaks, and I found both his presentation and the contents of this book enjoyable, constructive, and helpful.

I suspect there will be more than a few candidates who will scope out this book, since many of the helps to mentors could also be used by candidates. Whatever the reason to use it, this book is the best thing on NBPTS mentoring out there, and I can't imagine what more information on the subject could be contained in one book.

As a (former) mentor trainer for the NBPTS, I found this work the finest in the field. It is simple, well-organized, and comprises everything a mentorship for the prospective NBCT might need (including a few sample handouts). I would highly recommend this book to candidates also. Adds a third dimension to learning the process that can only prove helpful. Heck--every teacher could benefit from this book.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

WHAT A CHARMING PIECE ON THE ANTEBELLUM SOUTH. CRAFTED WITH PURE GENIOUS AND A PEN FOR DETAIL, "THE MODERATES' DILEMMA" BRINGS TO LIGHT THE UNDENIABLE OBSTINANCE OF THE SOUTH'S PREMIERE SCHOOL DISTRICTS.THIS WORK IS A MUST READ FOR HISTORY GRADS OF ANY BACKGROUND.

I read the book, it is brilliant collection of writings. The editors offer an interesting, sophisticated analysis of the white response to busing. Being a former student of his, I can attest that Matthew D. Lassiter is an incredibly intelligent, dynamic individual. I highly recommend this book, and anxiously await his upcoming works.

Matthew Lassiter, editor-in-chief of this seminal collection, sets forth, once again, a fresh standard of scholarly excellence and eloquence. His essay, "A 'Fighting Moderate,'" illustrates one of his innumerable intellectual virtues, the ability to electrify his arduously acquired historian's sobriety with an innate psychological acuity.

Matthew D. Lassiter, perhaps the world's pre-eminent scholar of the American South, co-edited this penetrating and resonant collection of essays, to which he has contributed a characteristically elegant and astute study of Benjamin Muse, who figured prominently in the turbulent early years of desegregation in Virginia.

For my senior seminar, I wrote a paper on desegregation/busing in the South. While I was doing research, a librarian found this book for me. I had to wait 2 weeks to get it through interlibrary loan, but it was worth it!! The essays really bring home the complexity of Southern desegregation when viewed through the lens of class issues. I can only aspire to produce such insightful scholarship!

I found "Music of Silence" a perfect book to accompany me on a week's retreat to a contemplative Benedictine monastery, where the life of a day is built around the offices, or hours, from Matins through Compline. David Steindl-Rast is a Benedictine monk who has written this companion of reflective essays for each of the monastic hours, to take the reader though the day, as it were. The essays are surprisingly wide-ranging, delving down many paths, from the Zen Buddhism of Thich Nhat Hanh to Rilke. They open up the meaning of such little hours as Terce and Sext, and in doing so they illuminate the various spiritual stages of every passing hour of the day, from night to night. Returning to my secular life I found myself still pondering the hours we pass through daily, as the stages of each passing day really do illuminate a whole life lived.

I purchased this complete with a copy of "Chant" by the Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo de Silos.

The beauty and stillness of this is enchanting and refreshing to the mind. We truly enter the world of sacred monastary in this way.

Just beautiful! Pax Domini!

While walking the reader through the daily life of a monk's spiritual journey, this author also inspires the lay person to listen to the "Music of Silence".

Every chapter deserves contemplation. The book gives everyone a direction to follow, as the hours of the day flow.

I found it even more inspirational to listen to Gregorian Chant while reading. I especially like "CHANT" by the Benedictine Monks of Santo Domingo De Silos.

If you truly need a break from the hectic pace of today's life then this book is a must read.

It has become a permanent part of my library and look forward to reading more from this author.

The author discusses how time can be a deeply sacred part of the hours of our lives, and why an appreciation of time has been developed by the experts of the monastic orders. Nothing is as ordinary, or as sacred, as time. Far from being an infinitesimally small unit of measurement or a means of separating one event from another, time provides the means by which the still, small, silent voice of God may be heard. This is a book to take on a sabbatical journey.

Steindl-Rast examines the moods implied in the canonical hours of the day. I have purchased both the book and the audio tapes of the book. The ideas expressed by Steindl-Rast are positive, valuable, and applicable to daily life. Prime, for example, occurring early in the day, according to Steindl-Rast, might be considered too early and simply an oh-no-here-we-go-again complaint. (my word, not his!) Or, it can be considered an opportunity, kind of a drumroll to our work of the day, preparing us to go ahead with energy and commitment.

Steindl-Rast uses a picture by Fra Angelico, which includes angels for each of the canonical hours, to explain many ideas. He also quotes the poets Robert Frost and Rainer Maria Rilke in his explanations of ideas. The excerpts of poetry are excellent and have led me to read more of each of these poets.

The music of which the author speaks is Gregorian Chant. And the words of the chants are the prayers and meditations that express the hours.

A high school music teacher, I have found the author's defining of the roots of words to describe their applications to be an excellent way to share vocabulary with my students. I have also found many ideas about music and a positive approach to life, all of which my students seem to appreciate.

This is an excellent book.

M C Papadolias

Growth on a global stage is the only way to sustainable success. It is an enormous challenge to grow let alone accomplish it globally. This book provides tangible object lessons on how these leaders have done it. If first-hand learning is best, then these stories approximate that construct.

This is an engaging and usefull guide to a difficult act.

A brillant leadership study from M.F.R. Kets de Vries and E. Florent-Treacy. The New Global Leaders is the success stories of three global leaders : " Richard Branson (founder and head of the Virgin Group), Percy Barnevik (mastermind behind the merger of ASEA and Brown Boveri to form ABB), and David Simon (former CEO of British Petroleum) all looked for ways to create a greater sense of purpose for their employees while putting in place the structure necessary for a global organization."

With case studies and interviews, this book has been built around the personal development of these world-class global leaders and the evolution of their companies.

As stated by Kets de Vries and Florent-Treacy," we first discuss the values that provide a foundation for excellence and a new psychological contract in vanguard companies such as Virgin, ABB, and BP and then show how these values can be translated into practice in any organization."

I highly recommend this brillant study.

A detailed and succesful study about ABB and Percy Barnevik see "ABB the Dancing Giant/K. Barham & C. Heimer".

Authors Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries and Elizabeth Florent-Treacy idealistically foresee a new era where visionary, innovative CEO's will lead a new type of employee. Through insightful interviews, they position Richard Branson of Virgin, Percy Barnevik of ABB and David Simon of British Petroleum as icons of the modern, improved CEO. Certainly, Branson and Simon seem to be valid role models and their leadership of European global companies presents interesting alternatives. Although it is not reflected in this 1999 book, today Barnevik's reputation is tarnished in the wake of a 2002 severance pay scandal and problems that BusinessWeek refers to as "the mess at ABB." For good or ill, this book will provoke you to ask if emphasizing a leader's charismatic ability to motivate distracts attention from critical core business issues. Despite their varied outcomes, these charismatic visionaries created family-like corporate cultures and inspired their employees. Thus, they demonstrated that the new economic era requires a new type of leader. Whether they together constitute a composite of that leader is another question. We recommend this solid book to management students and to upcoming executives.

Well written, easy to read. Hard acts to follow. You will get to know three successful business leaders. What are their background, childhood, education and career? What happened to their companies when they were leading them? Interviews with each one of them in which many questions are answered that you probably would have asked. The companies are large, global and successful. There is a lot to learn. It is not a cookbook. The authors make a useful summary but when you reflect about what the three persons have done there are not only many things they all did but also many things they did differently. I bought the book because it was listed under the heading "business ethics" in an Amazon search. The book is not directly about ethics. It is useful in that context as it shows that these three leaders through their actions demonstrate having moral convictions. Part of that conviction is to deliver shareholder value but also strong feelings of responsibility for the environment and social issues. Furthermore they have been able, with a lot of hard work, to impart this concept on all of the employees. All three believe that employees become much more motivated and loyal to the organisation when they feel that they are working towards goals in addition to shareholder value. One also becomes convinced that they do not set these wider goals as a public relations exercise or a clever way to motivate people to work harder. These leaders are totally sincere in what they say and what they do.

The book gives valuable insight into the way these three ground-breaking European leaders think about business, and how they successfully manage global organizations. The book clearly illustrate the different personal traits of the subjects (the builder, the transformer, and the integrator), and ecourages the reader to challange the pros and cons of the different philosophies. The book reads very much like a case study, and provides an excellent but basic overview over the global marketplace and on how to be able to draw on the ideas implemented by these great leaders.

Opening and reading this book is extremely worthwhile. It is a practical guide showing how to IMPLEMENT the open-book philosophy.

This work provides a new model of business management that bridges the people- versus profit-orientation approaches. Discusses and presents features of ten open-book bonus plans. Some key topics are participation, communication, and empowerment. Filled with lots of detailed information and insights. Reviewed by Gerry Stern, founder, Stern & Associates, author of Stern's Sourcefinder: The Master Directory to HR and Business Management Information & Resources, Stern's CyberSpace SourceFinder, and Stern's Compensation and Benefits SourceFinder.

Great practical information on actual open book practices from several companies.

In his first book on Open-Book Management (OBM), the author builds the case for why a change in management practice is necessary, and why OBM in particular uniquely best addresses the issues needed for successful management today. Once one has read that book and is either interested enough to want to learn more or sold to the point he or she wants to implement it, then this book is the perfect follow-up.

This book focuses on the details, and they say the devil is always in the details. You could say the authors first book dealt more with the "WHY" and this deals more with the "HOW", though there is some crossover. By drawing experiences (both good and bad) from 100 companies, the reader can benefit enormously by not having to deal with as much trial-and-error personally. I highly recommend this book to those who are likely to implement OBM.

One of the best books yet on Open Book Management. Full of practical advice for anyone trying to use Open Book Management in their business. As anyone involved in implementing OBM will tell you, you need all the help you can get. This book has given us a host of new ideas and lots of hands on stuff to help us to make OBM a reality in our business. We hope the next book isn't far away.

I recently re-read Case's Open-Book Management: The Coming Business Revolution (1996) and then this book (1999). Both are even more important now than when originally published. In this volume, Case develops his key ideas in much greater depth while examining more than 100 companies which -- to varying extent -- have implemented open-book principles. Perhaps without intending to, some reviewers have incorrectly suggested that these principles have relevance only to publicly-traded companies. In fact, I think they can also be of substantial value to non-profits as well as to privately-owned companies. Consider the over-used phrase "taking ownership" in the context of assuming responsibility for helping to reduce costs by completing more and better work in less time or in the context of assuming responsibility for making certain that a customer's problem has been solved. Heaven knows, what Case advocates will increase "business literacy" among everyone involved in a given enterprise but it can and should accomplish more, much more.

For example, effective application of open-book principles will create a "transparent" organization. That is, one in which everyone is kept fully informed of what is most important to the success of that enterprise. Such knowledge includes but is by no means is limited to financial information which explains, for example, how much it costs to open the door each business day or how much money is spent on training, overtime, postage, shipping, etc. According to Case, "Really the only way for a company to boost performance consistently over the long terms is to have employees who work enthusiastically and effectively and who take responsibility for their own work. Good systems -- meaning good procedures and equipment -- are indispensable. But what makes the difference in the end is whether the employees doing the job think about doing it just a little bit better and care whether they do or don't." At a time when competition is more ferocious than ever before, "battles" will be won or lost within what Case characterizes as "the human dimension of business -- the wanting, the caring, the enthusiasm, the problem solving and initiative taking." Open-book principles offer a new approach to management, one which starts from scratch with a new set of assumptions "about how people in an organization work together." In this volume, citing countless real-world applications of those principles, Case explains HOW...and, of equal importance, WHY.

If possible, read Open-Book Management first. You may also wish to check out Kaplan and Norton's The Balanced Scorecard: Translating Strategy into Action and then its sequel, The Strategy-Focused Organization: How Balanced Scorecard Companies Thrive in the New Business Environment. Perhaps the Lone Ranger could prevail armed only with a silver bullet but the rest of us need a full arsenal of weapons. Many of them are provided by Case, Kaplan, and Norton.

It is a well-written (text)book outlining and discussing, in an accessible and at the same time scholarly manner, the organizational patterns uncovered by organizational theorists studying the emergence and co-evolution of organizations and their socio-politico-economic environments.

There are three features of the presentation of material I especially like:
1) The organizational phenomena/patterns discussed are often considered from the different perspectives of different schools of organizational theorists, each emphasizing very different aspects/interpretations of the same organizational phenomena. This ensures an unusually rich, multi-faceted perspective on and thus a clear understanding of the organizational phenomena/patterns under consideration. You may consider/interpret a red rose, for example, as a geometrical object, as a biochemical system, as a botanic variety, as an object of esthetics, as a symbol of love and passion and in many other ways. Neither perspective alone will give you, however, an adequate understanding of what red rose actually is. Only together, when coordinated within an overarching conceptual context/framework of life, they will provide you with an understanding of the red rose phenomenon. In "Organizations Evolving", the overarching conceptual framework coordinating different interpretations of and perspectives on organizations is the evolutionary framework built on the four conceptual patterns common to all living systems - variation, selection, retention/inheritance and struggle. Notwithstanding the limitations of Darwinian framework for adequate description/understanding of living systems, it is currently by far the best one as compared to any of existing alternatives, and its use as an overarching framework of the organizational theory is a brilliant advance.
2) The organizational dynamics is presented as inherently contextual, i.e. defined by the environment and defining the environment at the same time.
3) The organizational patterns/phenomena are considered across several levels of organizational hierarchy, from intra-organizational dynamics through inter-organizational relationships to the dynamics of organizational populations.
All of these features together with a broad coverage of topics in organizational theory and a well-structured, clear and scholarly presentation of material, make this book a must-to-have resource for any intellectual.

Please keep in mind that everything around you and inside you are organizations. Your thoughts (if they are organized, of course), the organization of your psyche, your cells and tissues, your family, your social network, your organization, your country and your planet are all, in their essence, organizational phenomena. Therefore, if you would like to gain a better understanding of any of those phenomena, and of all of them together, buy and study this book. It is one of those rare texts, the value of which is so overwhelming that any critical comments you may have in mind while reading it eventually fade into insignificance.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Alexei, you have captured the spirit in which I wrote the book! Maybe you could log on & amend your review to include this? (I know that it is allowed).

best,
howard

This book is a must read for organizational scholars in any discipline. This book not only summarizes and synthesizes decades of research in organizations but also provides new insights and understandings of the evolving organization and its environment. Selection, Retention, and Variation are key oncepts that make sense for understanding organizations from their creation and disbanding to innovation and stagnation within organizations. The book has created and encourages news ways to think about organizations by combining what was thought of as opposing theories in the past.

It is imperative that students, scholars, and anyone who interacts with organizations (that is all of us!) should read this book.

Indicative of the North Carolina Sociology tradition of serving as an incubator for ecological-sociological perspectives, the book opens by quickly stating its goal to apply ecological principles to the study of formal organizations. Aldrich and Ruef define evolution as occurring via four major principles: variation, selection, retention and struggle for scarce resources. Environments shape and select heterogeneous organizations competing for market share, legitimacy and survival. Since Herbert Spencer and his eventual fall from theoretical prominence in sociology, the imposition of scientific analogies to explain social science phenomena has been controversial. However, the evolutionary metaphors presented are lucid and intuitive, and may be especially compelling to newcomers to the field, who are immediately presented with a clear heuristic to understand markets and organizations.

Aldrich and Ruef adroitly apply the evolutionary perspective to all main organizational theories, including population ecology, institutional theory and resource dependency theory. However, regardless if one accepts or prefers the ecological rubric that is sketched out in the early chapters, I believe the book's prime contribution is serving as a comprehensive and contemporary review of the literature in organizations, markets and networks. The standard chapters on organizational forms, boundaries and populations are included, but the book also stands out for its emphasis on the dynamic and fluid nature of markets, institutions, networks, organizations and other relevant social entities. Numerous chapters focus on the emergence of new organizations and populations, showing how the dynamic and static states of organizations and social phenomena in general are intertwined and how organizations often serve as harbingers of social change and development.

The chapter on entrepreneurship and the emergence of new organizations emphasizes the author's emphasis on the dynamic processes that underlie organizational creation. Entrepreneurship and the decisions entrepreneurs make serve as the precursors for the development of organizations in addition the environments they are situated in. Forming (or at least strategizing) one's organizations and networks is an integral part of commerce and economic behavior, and may be one of many areas where economic sociology and formal organizations overlap. As was the case with the book's 1999 edition, the emphasis on nascent and dynamic organizations and entrepreneurs provides valuable perspectives on the struggles of individuals and organizations for survival and legitimacy, and driving forces of innovation and change within populations and industries.

A question the book left me pondering was to what degree formal organizations can be treated analogously to markets and other institutions. While the broad ecological principles Aldrich and Ruef sketch out may provide such an analogy, neoclassical and evolutionary economists have also used similar analogies to evidence their own theories. When an evolutionary perspective is applied to formal organizations or economic phenomena, how does it differ (and should it differ?), if at all, from the Darwinian/Smithian notion of "the survival of the fittest" often invoked by many economists. Some sociologists argue that contemporary economic life is characterized by much adverse selection, with insufficient or undesirable variation, unfair struggle and the retention of undesirable firms and behaviors, which may or may not be uniquely human/social issues and problems that transcend evolutionary theories and phenomena. At the very least, an evolutionary perspective provides an interesting metaphor to explore these macro-level questions.

In short, the second edition of Organizations Evolving can serve as a textbook for introducing undergraduates to organizational, market and network phenomena, in addition to providing a clear, comprehensive and up-to-date review of a vast array of relevant literature that more experienced scholars will also appreciate.

(A similar version of this review appeared in Accounts, the Economic Sociology Newsletter of the ASA, Summer 2006.)

I bought this book despite having the first edition. It is a welcome addition, and is really well executed. There's a new section on organizational forms that examines organizational cognition, organizational knowledge/culture, and knowledge/cultural diffusion. Addressing culture was a particularly important improvement to a classic work, which now cites more recent literature. For the classroom, it also includes "student friendly" questions at the end of each chapter, although it would be well worth buying regardless.

Focusing primarily on businesses, and using a multidisciplinary approach, the book examines organization from three standpoints: the challenge of studying organization; the genesis of organizations, organizational populations, and communities; and the evolutionary processes through which new organizations, populations and communities emerge.

The book is organized into five sections:
1) introduction to the evolutionary approach;
2) a discussion of the role of individuals and groups in the creation and maintenance of organizations;
3) an examination of organizational transformation by exploring the historical context and social change;
4) the emergence of new and established populations; and
5) an assessment of organization evolution at the community level.

The book offers many insights and an extensive discussion of each topic. Each chapter ends with study questions and exercises. Includes an extensvie list of references. For scholars seeking to understand organizations from an evolutionary standpoint, this book is very highly recommended.