Previously, the conventional wisdom about organizations was "If it's not broken, then don't fix it. " Today, the new dictum seems to be "If it works, make it work better. " There is a shift from a posture of reaction to one that embraces change. The prevailing wisdom is changing because many of our organizations are now or will soon be in a state of crisis. Every day we read about a proud old firm going bankrupt, manufacturers who must cut costs and retrench in order to survive, and failures in our governmental agencies. Who's next? Many organizations are failing but others are doing well. All wonder if something terrible could happen to their organization. Thus, it seems prudent to anticipate and proactively manage change rather than to passively sit by until some crisis strikes. All of us know that any organization can be improved. There will always be a gap between some desired state and our current reality. There will always be differences among people about what is desirable and what is not. Every change energizes these gaps. Because there are so many changes taking place, it is no wonder that there is continuous clamor for organizational change. These gaps and differences are the source of problems. Once a problem is recognized and agreed to, efforts are made to generate a solution to it. Every solution has both its intended and unintended consequences.

Society, globally, has entered into what might be called the "service economy." Services now constitute the largest share of GDP in most countries and provide the major source of employment in both developed and developing countries. Services permeate all aspects of peoples’ lives and are becoming inseparable from most aspects of economic activity. "Quality management" has been a dominating managerial practice since World War II. With quality management initially associated with manufacturing industries, one might assume the relevance of quality management might decrease with the emergence of the service economy. To the contrary, the emergence of the service economy strengthened the importance of quality issues, which no longer are associated only with manufacturing industries but are increasingly applied in all service sectors, as well. Today, we talk not only about product or service quality but have even expanded the framework of quality to quality of life and quality of environment. Thus, quality and services have emerged in parallel as closely interrelated fields. The Encyclopedia of Quality and the Service Economy explores such relevant questions as: What are the characteristics, nature, and definitions of quality and services? How do we define quality of products, quality of services, or quality of life? How are services distinguished from goods? How do we measure various aspects of quality and services? How can products and service quality be managed most effectively and efficiently? What is the role of customers in creation of values? These questions and more are explored within the pages of this two-volume, A-to-Z reference work.

They also show how a variety of factors - including demographics, team structure, and communication processes influence the effectiveness of key managers.

Organizational Change is a complex yet essential process for growth and development in business. The second edition of this insightful book examines the nature of this critical process in the light of the rapid changes in the business environment and intense global competition.The author revisits fundamental concepts, as well as presents new ideas, activities, and processes associated with how to plan, implement and manage effective transformational change. The book highlights:- The nature and process of transformational change and the paradigms basic to the change process- The basic concepts and strategic leverages of change- The need for and ways of aligning current tasks, systems, processes, and culture with organizational goals- The support systems required for change and the need to develop and maintain these systems- Ways of tuning organizations for change- Managing change through people by optimizing individual and group effortsSupported by numerous case studies and written in a lucid and reader-friendly style, this book will be a definitive guide for students, scholars, and practitioners.

This annual series presents research on the theory and practice of management. Its goal is to be truly comparative--in terms of the broad scope of management perspectives, in the broad-ranging locations of its research as well as its application, and in its comparisons of findings, methodologies, and operational definitions.Part I, "Organization Theory, Change, and Effectiveness," presents a model of organizational congruency, discusses managing interdependence to enhance organizational effectiveness, outlines a theoretical framework that clarifies the means by which IT can affect organizations' economic activities, and suggests how organization development approach can help find more satisfying equilibria of forces and stakeholders in today's organizational cultures. Part II, "Behavior and Attitudes in Organizations," considers values and leadership roles, discusses the role played by trust in interfirm collaboration, and explores the relationship between organizational climate and ethical decisions. Part III, "International and Cross-cultural Management," looks at various issues of management including power bases of supervisors and subordinates' conflict management strategies and commitment, organizational commitment of the U.S. and Korean workers; superior-subordinate communication in a multicultural workforce in Macao, and cynicism toward change in the public sector in Australia. Part IV, "Human Resource Management," deals with consequences of removing performance appraisal and merit pay; the entrepreneurial role to bring disconnected parties together for economic, social and/or political benefits; and relationships of downsizing to career perceptions and psychological contract. Part V, "Inference and Data in Management Research," urges greater use of strong inference and discusses the strength of data and the interaction between data and inference in a procedure called strong inference.

Organization Structures: Theory and Design, Analysis and Prescription describes how to organize people to achieve a desired outcome. This is accomplished by establishing sets of rules from "real world" organization contexts. Moreover, the development of these rules within "real world" contexts means that the rules must be true, general, operational, technically sound, and easy to use. With an understanding of rules and the processes of their use, organization structures can be identified, which in turn form the basis of a theoretical framework. This book discusses, examines, and demonstrates the interrelationship of the design rules, their theoretical use within these organization structures, along with their practical implications. Throughout the book, an extended example of the Masters Brewing Corporation (MBC) is used to illustrate the conceptual material and to make the implications of the organizational analysis explicitly concrete.