|
Understanding
Organizational Evolution
Its Impact on Management and Performance
As a firm
expands or contracts in the course of its evolution - from
nimble start-up to arrogant arrivé to bloated conglomerate
to downsized veteran of competitive struggle - it experiences
predictable stages of change. During these stages, a company
discovers that what worked in the past no longer works. At
such times, managers have to juggle the three variables of
organizational evolution - the firm's purpose, its processes
and procedures, and its human resource issues - and keep them
in balance as they reinvent new ways of structuring the firm.
Inevitably, tension develops as one variable is stressed at
the expense of the others. Managers need to know how to delegate
decision making without abdicating overall control of the
organization.
The model
developed here derives from the authors' understanding of
how successful firms have managed these tensions. Fletcher
and Taplin deal with teamwork, leadership, and the nature
of dynamic change while successfully avoiding the clichés
to which many experts in those areas are prone. They discuss
teamwork in the context of wider performance and process issues.
They address leadership not by talking about personality traits,
but by examining the tensions within authority structures
as senior managers attempt to reconcile organizational logics
(history and past practices that have sustained the firm)
and their own definitions of the challenges that face the
firm. The authors argue that such contradictions follow a
predictable pattern. Managers can either ignore the underlying
instability or confront it in ways that will ease the transition
and sustain the organization's dynamic nature.
CONTENTS:
Preface;
Evolution of the Organization; The Early Phases; The
Corridor of Crisis; The Transition to Teams and Alliances;
Maturing Societies and Nations; An Issue of Control; Historical
Perspectives & Trends; The Changing Perception of
Work; A History of Teamwork - Driving Environment; From Compliance
to Commitment: A Case Study; When Span of Control Becomes
Span of Communication; The Functioning of Performance Management
Today: Establishing a Performance Management System; The
Art of Delegation; The Art of Leadership - The Human Side
of Enterprise; Making It Happen: Why Change Programs
Fail; Strategies and Structures for the 21st Century; Appendices;
Index.
Douglas
Scott Fletcher is Principal and Senior Consultant at Performex
in Newport Beach, California. He has done extensive consulting
in the areas of performance management, cross-functional teams,
and personal performance improvement.
Ian
M. Taplin is Professor of Sociology, Management, and International
Studies at Wake Forest University. He has done extensive research
on work re-organization and restructuring in the American
and British garment industries.
ENDORSEMENTS:
"Without
having read the book, I would not have grasped the big picture;
lacking an understanding of the concepts expressed herein,
I would have focused on my MBO's and the tasks at hand. Now,
I believe I understand centralization and decentralization,
how to push decision making down to the lowest level, and
how not to get caught up in the data…These efficiencies
have given me the ability to operate in a large corporate
environment with all of the agility and values of a small
business."
John Petas,
Senior Vice President
Automobile Service Operations
American Honda Motor Co., Inc.
"A
unique combination of practical management advice and deep
insight into the underlying reasons for organizational problems….Their
use of numerous specific cases and examples, and emphasis
on using information technology for performance management
make this book ideal for MBA and Executive Education courses
in management and leadership."
Jone L.
Pearce
Professor of Management
University of California, Irvine
"More
than a 'how to' manual, this book also explains 'why' and
wraps it all neatly together with a written style that is
both informative and engaging,…[This book] will appeal
to reflective practitioners everywhere, whether they be managers,
consultants, or scholars."
Jonathan
Winterton
Director of Research and Professor of Human Resource Development
Groupe ESC Toulouse (Toulouse Business School), France
|
