Organizations Books

At last, a superb book that not only explains the comprehensive view of organizations that was the lifetime work of Elliott Jaques, but also provides the larger context of his work alongside practical examples of how it can be applied to improve organizational life. Ken Shepard has done a magnificent job of bringing together managers, academics, practitioners and consultants who have hands-on experience of Jaques's work. The chapters provide a feast for the reader interested in improving the performance of organizations by allowing members to realize their individual capabilities while working creatively and harmoniously with each other.

As an academic/consultant myself, my early career seemed filled with mysteries as I tried to understand organizational life. After reading much of the literature, and finding nuggets of truth here and there, I felt that the pieces didn't fit together. By good fortune, I was a member of the School of Social Sciences at Brunel University when Jaques was Head of the School, but I initially dismissed his theories as just too implausible. However, on closer examination, followed by teaching a course, Behaviour in Organisations, with him, it dawned on me that here was a comprehensive theory that brought together and made sense of my experiences in organizations outside the university.

I now teach Jaques's ideas about organizational structure and functioning to my students at the London School of Economics, and use them in my consultancy work. Several years ago I loaned my copy of Requisite Organization to a retired chairman of one of the UK's largest companies, who on returning it to me commented "If I had had this book earlier, the last 25 years of my company life would have been completely different."

This new book should light fires in organizations all around the world, exposing serious dysfunction, but also showing how it can be cured. A landmark achievement in the social sciences: a theory that not only explains and predicts, but also shows how improvements can be made.

Every three to five years a groundbreaking book is published. This inspiring book is one of them. I have been working with teams and organisations during the last 25 years, enabling them to realize there purpose. During this period I experimented with different models and approaches, each having an added value. Nevertheless I still had the feeling that something was missing.

This book builds on the work of Elliot Jaques and is for me one of the missing pieces in how to (re)build trust. It recognises that people and organisations are complex. Understanding how people at different levels deal with this complexity is one of the keys to create effective organisations. This book presents a set of concepts and a model that predict what will and what will not be effective in organisations regarding leadership, systems, staffing and structures. Rather than a set of prefabricated solutions it is a tool that helps understand how you can increase the performance and well-being in an organisation.

I found the book an extremely valuable add for excecutives and everyone who is responsible for organising work. It gave me new insights on how to structure an organisation, how to match and challenge the capabilities of employees, how to provide the appropriate recognition and above all how to develop a value system to make contributions in broader society. The approach takes you beyond the current dominant 'competency' approach and the numerous examples helped me understand how to design, implement and sustain positive changes in an organisation.
Jan De Visch - Managing Partner Bridges for Choice (Belgium)

The sheer magnitude of this book is immense. A sizeable volume with many authors, carefully crafted together through skilful editing and design.

The book undertakes a large task in bringing the frameworks originally developed by Elliott Jaques and Wilfred Brown into the present. Over the decades since their original publications the body of knowledge has widened and many of the ways that we look at companies and organizations has changed.

Unfortunately the speed of change and the needs of academics and consultants to position themselves has led to a "flavour of the month" in publishing. Not unlike the tabloids, where the most important thing is to sell todays issue.

This book brings forward what has very much been a silent and unglamorous movement. Not a word about glitzy strategies or dramatic success stories. It is all about building sound organizational structures and manning them with the right people.

The authors of this anthology are academics, consultants and people from the real world of companies and organizations. The book contains a substantial body of knowledge and experience. No single author could bring together all this.

The book reminds me of the Edison quote "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls, and looks like work". A lot of the organizational stuff that we read in papers, magazines and books is "flash in the pan" and contains the lure of the quick fix. This book is about the resilient way to long term organizational success, and that is a big job.

If you want to live on the hope for a quick fix, then read all the other books. If you truly want to embark on the journey of building a viable and successful organization, then read this book and set it as your starting point.

In "Organisation Design: Fashion or fit?" Mintzberg discusses five distinct organisational configurations namely the simple structure, the machine bureaucracy, the professional bureaucracy, the divisional form and adhocracy. Each configuration is made up of five component parts namely the strategic apex, operating core, technostructure, support staff and the middle line.

The author explains how coordination is achieved in the five organisational configurations. For example, in the simple structure, it is through supervision; in a machine bureaucracy (such as a vehicle assembly line), it is through standardisation of work; in a professional bureaucracy (such as a university), it is through standardisation of skills; in a divisional form, it is through the standardisation of output; and in the most complex organisational structure, the adhocracy, coordination is achieved through mutual adjustment. The author explains the pros and cons of each configuration and where it is most suitable.

According to Mintzberg, these configurations are effective tools for diagnosing the problems of designing organisations.

This is a very enlightening article in organisational design which is a must to read by managers who need to understand how to design their organisations for effective performance. Those studying management, business studies or an MBA will find the article very useful, easy to follow and understand.

Henry Mintzberg is Professor of Management Studies at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and a Professor of Organization at INSEAD in Fontainebleau, France. This classic article was published in the January-February 1981 issue of the Harvard Business Review.

In order the discuss and distinguish the five distinct organizational configurations, Mintzberg first discusses the five component parts which make up the whole organization: strategic apex, operating core, technostructure, support staff, and middle line. He then continues with describing how each of these elements cluster into the five configurations. Each of these five configurations (simple structure, machine bureaucracy, divisional form, adhocracy) are discussed in detail, with both their strengths and weaknesses. So how do we need to use these configurations? "... this set of five configurations can serve as an effective tool in diagnosing the porblems of organizational design, especially those of the fit among component parts." Mintzberg uses four basic forms of misfit to show how managers should use it as a diagnostic tool. He emphasizes that especially fit remains an important characteristic. There are excellent graphs, tables, and a great appendix explaining the organizational configurations and component parts. The author concludes that "the point is not really which configuration you have; it is that you achieve configuration."

Yes, this is one of the best articles I have read. It provides a great introduction/framework into organizational structures and design. Mintzberg does not want us to see his introduction as a framework. But I disagree. This article is thorough enough to use as a framework, keeping in mind that larger organizations (can) consist of a mixture of the discussed configurations. For people interested in a further discussion of organizational structures I refer to Henry Mintzberg's 1978-book "The Structuring of Organizations". This article should be compulsory reading for managers and MBA-students. The author uses simple business US-English.

The best book to understand the nature of any organization in business or no business world. Henry Mintzberg give us the elements to detect the sick part in the structure and the way to keep in control every part through parameters.

That's the best tool to use when you want to see your company focused in the structure analysis, to take the actions to align the model. This article is old, but is actual too, then you want to know it.

The textbook was brand new and was wrapped in cellophane. Class began the following week, and the book arrived that week-end which gave me enough time to complete assignments in a timely fashion.

I used this book in my MBA program. This is a very good resource. It is researched based with many articles that are relatively short and to the point.

The editors of the book have included in a single volume the classics. The articles include those authored by Kurt Lewin, Chris Argyris, Edgar Schein, Gareth Jones, C.K. Prahalad & Jeffrey Pfeffer besides many others. The latest edition published in 2000 include 16 new readings. Useful resource material for students of organisational behaviour and organisational change. The strategies described in some of the readings could be usefully applied in a variety of work settings. HR practioners and those in human resources development will find some of the articles valuable in crafting policies and renewal of training strategies. To sum it, in the words of the editors, "The field of organisation development is fun and exciting. We hope this anthology will convey some of that sense of excitement." I have discovered that sense of excitement when I read the articles in the book. I will continue to refer to them from time to time.

An amazing book that held my hand through the entire organization process. It helped alleviate my overwhelming feeling of dealing with my stuff. What a godsend.

This book was published in 1993, but I, at the least, would greatly appreciate and feel there is a need for an updated version with new ideas and suggestions on how to keep up with today's innovations, etc. Thanks.

I would recommend this book to anyone who ever felt lost in a sea of their own stuff. I latched onto the 'box storage system' right away, read it again and picked up some paperwork tips, after the third time I tried the meal planning calendar and my life has been changed forever. Husband loves it. I love it. Go Pam!

I've read MANY books on home organization. I just came across this one and read it all in one day!! It is very clear and covers one end of the house to the other. Plus, you don't have to set up elaborate systems to get your house organized. Get a copy of this one--you'll be glad you did!!

WHERE IS THE SECOND EDITION AVAILABLE FROM?I NEED IT ASAP!!PLEASE HELP ME

The second edition of The Organization of Industry (ISBN 0-87393-414-8) is now available from Dame Publications, Inc., 7800 Bissonnet, Suite 415, Houston, TX 77074. Phone: (713) 995-1000

The Second Edition of THE ORGANIZATION OF INDUSTRY will soon be published by Dame Publications, Inc., of Houston, Texas. How do I know? I'm the author. Please send me your comments

Smith and Berg have wrouth - written is too modest - a briljant insighful and wise guide tour behind the coulises of our lifes. It is the best guide book I know to the place you live in: the group. You can use it in almost every situation. They show how we are caught in our webs, our own frames of mind, our relational swamp. Such is life and it is getting sucher and sucher all the time.
I recommend this book to every one dealing with groups AND individuals, because there is no better way to start to understand what life ' is'.

This insightful book has accompanied me through grad school, two corporate reorganizations and numerous consulting projects. The authors have written an excellent text on the contradictory forces/movements endemic to group life. Their use of paradoxical thought as a lens for thinking about and successfully navigating the territory of group life is both practical and innovative. If you're looking for the usual book about conflict resolution, please look elsewhere. Smith and Berg advocate reclaiming rather than repressing or eliminating the fears and anxieties that define many aspects of group life. Their explanation of concepts such as group paralysis, oscillation, group-as-whole, splitting and individual ambivalence are clear and highly cogent when integrated into a paradoxical framework.

Paradoxes of Group Life is a masterful explication of the concepts its title announces. This readable volume will serve the newcomer to Group Dynamics as well as the more experienced cognoscenti. People are often fundamentally ambivalent about ourselves and our participation in groups. Smith & Berg explain these (often unconscious) dynamics with great clarity and force. Treat yourself to this compelling analysis. I highly recommend their important work!

This book is great "airplane" reading. Each chapter is self contained --- usually about 10 to 15 pages, and written by world renowned experts in their field. Partnering is the common theme, but the authors cover a lot of territory.

This book is timely and relevant to today's environmnet. I especially like the idea that all the authors (as if these people need the money) are donating the royalities from sales to the victims of September 11, 2001.

Great book! Partnering is the way to do business now and in the future. The book is a fine collection of tools and strategies in leadership and management. It's educational, inspiring and engaging at the same time. A must read for anybody who manages fast pace, competitive businesses

This is a book for people who are concerned for building a better future. As someone who has spent a great deal of time studying leadership, I find the focus on doing it better that is found in this book to be quite refreshing. Here we move beyond evolutionary changes to ideas that are quite revolutionary. This is not a book about maintaining the status quo power structures. This is a book about creating new leadership styles where partnership with knowledgeable workers will be needed to ensure organizational success.

The command and control style of leadership is coming to an end. For a leader to succeed in the future they will have to rely on their ability to pull together the talents of many individuals. This will be a leader who respects others, who helps coach and develop real talent, who shares success, and who continuously reinvents her/himself. The book gives us hope for a future where we can be productive without sacrificing our humanity.

The books 30 essays by 42 thought leaders are works derived from a passion for helping others. The inspiration for this book comes from an awareness for new leadership made more apparent by the events of 9/11. All of the royalties from this book will go to help the victims of that tragic day.

A must have for anyone interested in Bone and Soft Tissue Pathology. I'm not sure when the new edition is coming out, though. You may want to look into that.

Dear Sirs,

I have returned the book "Pathology and genetics of tumors of the soft tissues and bones" because I have already bought by amazon.com in my other account (vencio56@hotmail.com). My mistake.

The book is very good (5 stars).
Sincerely,
Eneida Franco Vencio

This is a great book to review bone and soft tissue tumor.

Robert Hogan very quickly makes you feel you are in good hands as he distills a long career as personality researcher and organizational consultant into this very accessible volume. His "rules of the road" are simple: Is the principle useful in the real world of leadership and organizational development? and, Is the principle rooted in solid data?

My guess is that Hogan made a practice of underselling--and then overdelivering to his clients. And this is exactly what this book does. It could probably replace a shelf full of business and organizational psychology books. Instead of a cold academic or a irrationally exuberant treatment of the importance of personality in leadership and team building, Hogan takes a refreshingly direct, honest and conversational approach. In the spirit Jim Collin's "level 5 leadership," he is more interested in being helpful than in shining a light on himself.

While reading the book I kept thinking that I was being guided by a favorite Uncle whose interest in teaching me was driven by a deeper level of caring than is found in the typical relationship of teacher/student or writer/reader.

You can tell that Mr. Hogan is interested in helping his reader get results through a singularly no-nonsense approach. While never mean-spirited, he has very little tolerance for practices and theories that do not follow his two "rules of the road". For example, Hogan is quick to dismiss Jung's model of personality as reflected in the Myers-Briggs typology.

Personally, I believe that Emotional Intelligence, Maslow, and Jungian typologies (which don't quite meet Hogan's rules of the road) continue to have large popular followings because they offer real insights in a warmer and less reductionistic way than the Big Five model (which has in fact been a great boon to personality research). Matter of fact and practical is good--but so are texture, nuance, introspection, and non-reductionistic models of personality.

Some of the greatest models of personality have come from novelists and poets--e.g. Shakespeare on the anatomy of dangers of hubris. Great leadership has an element of artistry--as well as other qualities that don't fit neatly in the Big Five or other lexical taxonomies. So science is a great way of knowing--but we have to recognize that it is a way of knowing that is firmly seated in the brain's left hemisphere--and does not have the symphonic or synergistic qualities of ways of knowing grounded in the right hemisphere. There is essential truth in these ways of knowing that should not be dismissed--but integrated into a greater explanatory whole.

This is a surprisingly good book. My only regret is that I didn't have an Uncle Robert Hogan when I was struggling to learn the ropes of organizational behavior :)

Once, when scholars were certain that personality did not exist, Robert Hogan led the charge against ignorance. The current revival of personality in organizational studies is in no small part due to Hogan's tireless research, writing, and professional presentations. All along his point has simply been that personality matters--as Freud put it, "Character is fate."

In this fabulous and briskly written book, the master marshals data, theory, and clear-headed thinking to present the most persuasive account ever presented on how and why personality determines the success and failure of business, political, and religious organizations. This is no small feat. However, it is topped by how plainly accessible Hogan renders his argument. You will not find any hedging or hawing, no mealy-mouthed consultant-speak trying to have it both ways. Instead, you get a no-holds-barred statement on such important lessons as how one bad apple really can spoil the bunch (personality and teams), who you are is how you lead (personality and leadership), why one jerk at the top can cause misery and losses for many (dark side of leadership), how self-actualization theory is Marxism-lite for Dummies (human nature), and how the individual search for power is the primary force animating all human activity (the secret life of organizations).

While firmly rooted in science, Personality and the Fate of Organizations is an essential guide for the thinking navigator of corporate politics, hierarchies, and realities. As Hogan put it in the context of human evolution, the most dangerous aspect of the environment is other people. This penetrating and fun-to-read treatise provides practical insight into that most powerful--and dangerous--force on the planet. The reader is rewarded with a roadmap for getting along, getting ahead, and finding some measure of meaning and purpose in it all.

Not for the faint of heart or ideologically inclined.

Personality and the Fate of Organizations by Robert Hogan, Ph.D., is a small book with a big message: the personalities of leaders have a dramatic role in the course of human affairs. While the average person might find this an obvious conclusion, academics and researchers have debated one question contentiously: Are leaders more-or-less average people who "rise to the occasion" or is their personality a unique factor in the outcome of their leadership?. Hogan is the author of the Hogan Personality Inventory, one of the few personality tests written and validated for the workplace. He comes down firmly on the side of personality as a key factor in the outcome of an individual's leadership.

"In a tradition extending from Freud and Weber to me," says Hogan, "people argue that leadership is a function of the characteristics of individuals. This means that some people have more talent for leadership than others." In seven chapters, Hogan examines the nature of that talent and its antithesis. He goes through a definition of personality, gives a history of personality psychology, examines leadership, team performance, organizational theory, managerial incompetence, and how to fix the latter. The main text is only 151 pages, but it encompasses topics no less than "The Psychology of Managerial Incompetence" and "The Secret Life of Organizations." Hogan has dedicated his career to understanding the role of personality in the workplace; this book may be his capstone explanation of all he has learned.

It has been said that each new generation forgets the mistakes of those that came before it. This book proves this point with respect to the privatization of utilities. The auhor delves into the history of electric and power privatization in industrial countries since 1900, with an emphasis on the US and UK, the two countries with the longest history of mass electricity usage. In this book, the author shows:
1. How the control of power generation, transmission, and usage has shifted back and forth between the public and private (corporate) sphere over the last century.
2. The times of public control saw minimal blackouts or rationing, low and steady rates, high investment in environmentally friendly technology, and high investment in research for more efficient technology.
3. The times of private control saw numerous blackouts and rationing, high and increasing rates, minimal investment in environmentally friendly technology, and low investment in research for more efficient technology.
4. The drive for privatization is always from big corporations who are either large-scale consumers of electricity, or large-scale producers of electricity.
5. The drive for public control always results from the poor service provided by privately-owned utilities.
6. Any time public and privately held utilities operated in the same geographical marketplace, the public utilities ALWAYS offer lower rates and more dependable service.
7. The switch from privately owned utilities to public control is always due to overwhelming public pressure at the grassroots level.
8. The switch to deregulate public utilities is due to propaganda put out by corporations and their sponsored think tanks.
9. The electricity industry by its nature and evolution in America is a prototypical natural monopoly and trying to privatize different segments of it leads to chaos.
10. Over the last decade, both the Bush and Clinton administrations contrived with Enron to force other countries to deregulate their utilities so Enron could buy them up and make profits on them.

Overall, this is a great book. It shows how big corporations, primarily Western ones, have collaborated over the last century to take control of the electric utilities around the world, solely to increase their profits. I highly recommend reading it.

Beder has written the indispensable account of why the American electric power industry is in extreme disarray. This is an account of deregulation, Enron, artificial prices and gross exploitation. It is the book of the moment: timely and relevant to the electric blackouts of August 2003, easy to understand, and really essential. Extremely informative.

Hegel once remarked that the only thing people learn from history is that people have learned nothing from history. To that end, the philosopher no doubt would have been intrigued by Sharon Beder's outstanding book "Power Play." In it, the author shows how the neo-liberal ideologies and financial self-interests that once conspired to create chaos in the electric power industry in the 1930s have been resurrected in our own time to produce similarly disastrous results. Importantly, her analysis helps us understand what needs to be done to restore order to an out-of-control system that garners most of its profits at the public's expense.

In my estimation, Sharon Beder has established herself as one of the most articulate critics of corporate power. As a Professor of Social Sciences, Media and Communications in Australia, Ms. Beder has demonstrated in prior books such as "Global Spin" a remarkable knack for deconstructing propaganda and uncovering the agendas that are often hidden behind corporate messages. I found "Power Play" to be a carefully reasoned, well-supported and convincing piece of research that makes for compelling reading.

The book is divided into five sections. The first deals with the history of power politics in the U.S. for most of the 20th century. We learn how private interests used the media and political influence to promote deregulation, and how the industry's eventual implosion was a major contributing factor in the stock market crash of 1929 and subsequent Great Depression. The second section discusses the push to deregulate in the latter part of the century to the present day. We see how legislation enacted in the 1930s to protect against corporate abuse was eventually rolled back, which in turn set the stage for companies like Enron to suffer a fate similar to that which befell Samuel Insull's energy empire in the 1930s.

The third, fourth and fifth sections deal with deregulation in Britain, Australia and other parts of the world. The global perspective provided by Ms. Beder is useful. Clearly, ideology and financial interests have been the driving forces behind the privatization agenda; interestingly, we learn that the outcomes in various locales have been remarkably similar. Ms. Beder relates how large corporations are often able to exercise market power in order to extort unusually large fees from their customers. The winners are large industrial users and the banks, investors and consultants working on behalf of the energy companies. The losers include taxpayers, farmers, the poor, small businesses and the environment.

In my opinion, although "Power Play" does not explicitly tie the economic inefficiencies of the deregulated power industry with the current economic downturn, it provides ample evidence that the crisis in the power industry significantly contributes to job loss and siphons capital from other productive sectors of the economy. For example, the author explains that privatized energy companies often cut payrolls in order to boost bottom-line profits. Ms. Beder also shows how obscene profits earned by a few large corporations such as Enron often act as a drag on local economies. The leading example of course is California, where escalating prices forced many businesses to shut down. Moreover, the payments that the state was forced to make to greedy suppliers during the energy crisis easily exceeds the state's current budget deficit, causing hardship for many.

Interestingly, "Power Play" was completed prior to the 2003 blackout in the U.S. and Canada. This unfortunate event validates Ms. Beder's work. The author points out that the dynamics of an unregulated market and the quest for instant profits provides a disincentive for producers to maintain equipment and transmission lines, resulting in more frequent failures and service disruptions. Ms. Beder goes on to point out that the expense and risk associated with added capacity is increasingly borne by the public even while profits accrue to private interests; this assertion also appears to have been prescient, as witnessed by the huge subsidies that the U.S. government has recently proposed to pay for upgrades to the country's electric grid for the benefit of many privately-held energy producers.

By cutting through the smokescreen of self-serving corporate propaganda, "Power Play" serves as a wakeup call for citizens everywhere. It helps us understand how we might be able to reverse this trend for the better before more damage is inflicted on us all.