The environment of modern organizations is so complex and volatile that we take for granted that organizational change is necessary for organizational survival. Yet the literature on organizations has for years described manifold obstacles to such change. First published in 1971, this book extracts from that literature and from experience a comprehensive yet concise overview of those barriers. Because these elements of the analysis are as valid now as when they were originally written, The Limits of Organizational Change is still widely read and cited nearly a quarter-century later. From the premises of this argument, Kaufman drew a number of conclusions about organizational survival and extinction, age and size, centralization and decentralization, and organizational evolution. Subsequent research and reflection induced him to refine and modify some of those inferences. The modifications are spelled out in a new preface that gives fresh relevance to his findings and his conjectures. Yet The Limits of Organizational Change is not a ponderous, labored work. As one reviewer remarked, it is "a delightful set of essays . . . a review of empirical research in a witty, conversational style. . . ." (The Rocky Mountain Social Science Journal). It is a book one can enjoy as well as profit from, and will be a useful tool for managers, organizational studies scholars, and sociologists.

Written by an interdisciplinary group of leading scholars, the book explores how organizational scholarship and thinking can inform an understanding of global change issues and examines the potential of cooperation as a practice an organizing accomplishment, and a value for understanding issues of global change.

Achieving a Twenty-First Century EnterpriseThere are two near-universal truths about the working world. The first being that people work best when they are happy and passionate about their work; the second being that people produce and innovate on their highest levels when they are not coerced to work, but are simply expected to keep the commitments they freely make to their colleagues and their organization. Today, companies cannot afford to have their employees disengaged and hating--or at least not loving--their jobs. Traditional management is broken. We need a new, twenty-first-century approach to management that will galvanize the minds--and hearts--of people giving so much of their lives to organizations.In The No-Limits Enterprise: Organizational Self-Management in the New World of Work, Doug Kirkpatrick examines how companies can begin the journey toward becoming a twenty-first-century enterprise with limitless power for growth. Within The No-Limits Enterprise, you will learn concept such as- why the domestic and global breakdown of bureaucracy means the future of the workplace is here right now,- why "managing" others in the workplace is obsolete and, ultimately, self-defeating on so many levels, and- how to rigorously self-assess for success, corporately and personally, before embarking on an enterprise transformation.Any business can transform itself into a No-Limits Enterprise in which every individual is free to innovate and forge new paths to the immense benefit of all. These challenges do not demand complex layers of management; they demand the ability to jettison ancient layers of control, and trust in the simplest of all human traits: the desire to create with dedication and love.

What is the purpose of social science and management research? Do scholars/researchers have a responsibility to generate insights and knowledge that are of practical (implementable) value and validity? We are told we live in turbulent and changing times, should this not provide an important opportunity for management researchers to provide understanding and guidance? Yet there is widespread concern about the efficacy of much research: These are some of the puzzles/pressing problems that Chris Argyris addresses in this short book. Argyris is one of the best known management scholars in the world - a leading light whose work has consistently addressed fundamental organizational questions, and who has provided some of the key concepts and building blocks of our understanding of organizational learning - single and double learning, theory in use, and espoused theory etc. In this book he questions many of the assumptions of organizational theory and research, and his investigation is not confined to academic analysis. He also scrutinizes that capacity for 'unproductive reasoning' (self-deception and rationalization) that is common amongst managers, consultants, and indeed more generally. As well as engaging with the work of leading organizational researchers (Sennett, Gabriel, Burgelman, Czarniawska, Grint, for example)he also ponders the work of the consultants, commentators, and accountants who endorsed Enron. Throughout his purpose is to affirm the goal and values of useful knowledge. His style/enquiry is direct but fair, challenging, if at times uncompromising. Drawing on his own wealth of experience of researching and working with organizations, this book will be a reference point for all concerned to develop useful knowledge and confront the defences and deceptions that are only too commonplace in the business and academic worlds.

Advancing in an organization is often a top priority for leaders, but a narrow organizational and personal perspective can severely limit your ability to advance. Broadening your organizational perspective—understanding not just your own area of expertise, but how your organization works as a whole-can greatly enhance your ability to move upward. This guidebook will help you understand how to widen your perspective by showing you what obstacles may be holding you back, and what challenges and experiences you can learn from in order to advance.

Scholars agree that change has become a staple in organizational life and will likely remain as such beyond the 21st century. As the rate of change continues to accelerate, organizations must strive to develop and implement new initiatives in order to obtain significant benefits to organizational survival, economic viability, and human satisfaction. Organizational Change Management Strategies in Modern Business covers the most important elements of change management as well as the difficulties and challenges that organizations have faced when implementing change. In sampling different disciplines relevant to topics such as resistance to change, mergers and acquisitions management, leadership, the role of human resource strategies, and culture, this reference work is a useful resource for academics, professionals, managers, administrators, and others interested in organizational change.

Managing Organizational Change, by Palmer/Dunford/Akin, provides managers with an awareness of the issues involved in managing change, moving them beyond one-best way approaches and providing them with access to multiple perspectives that they can draw upon in order to enhance their success in producing organizational change. These multiple perspectives provide a theme for the text as well as a framework for the way each chapter outlines different options open to managers in helping them to identify, in a reflective way, the actions and choices open to them. The authors favor using multiple perspectives to ensure that change managers are not trapped by a one-best way of approaching change which limits their options for action. Changing organizations is as messy as it is exhilarating, as frustrating as it is satisfying, as muddling-through and creative a process as it is a rational one. This book recognizes these tensions for those involved in managing organizational change. identifying why they are there, how they can be managed and the limits they create for what the manager of organizational change can achieve.