Business professionals present a refreshing approach for organizational change.
Some companies seem to be in a perpetual state of “improvement,” with thousands of dollars spent on consultants and a constant avalanche of new policies. Often, there’s little positive change, but it’s time to stop blaming leadership for an organization’s shortcomings, say Klubeck, Langthorne and Padgett. While that sentiment may be radical at first glance (and it will no doubt catch managers’ attention), the authors’ straightforward, comprehensible presentation is actually based on common sense. Instead of pointing fingers, business leaders are urged to examine the cultural climates of their organizations to determine if they’re indeed prepared for change. As the authors say, organizations often rush to fix problems with broad, companywide directives that are regularly doomed to fail. Instead, small “targeted initiatives”—with input from employees excited by the results—can spread positive attitudes. Therefore, the authors say, one of the most important steps to successful organizational change is understanding the differences between a mature company and an immature one. Part 1 of the book is devoted to this assessment, though the concept is expanded throughout the book with examples that will leave many readers nodding their heads: “You know you’re in an immature organization when one or more senior leaders regularly circumvent processes (and no one challenges them).” A self-assessment maturity quiz and an organizational health survey are included in the book’s appendix, as are other hands-on guides, and readers are urged to use the maturity assessments as tools for discussion before making any change. The authors’ presentation is concept-driven except for a few anecdotes, such as a short chapter “interlude,” which strives for a lighthearted tone but ends up a bit superfluous. Parts 2 through 4 delve into the identification of more mature-business behaviors and a discussion of some familiar terms, like strategic planning and effective communication. Later, a compelling case is made for personality over résumé content when hiring: “Mature organizations care more about talent, attitude, and personality than skill set. Skills and knowledge can be attained and enhanced easily…compared to developing a person’s personality. Personality traits, such as values, morals, a sense of humor, and the ability to relate to and interact with others, are present in youth and refined over a lifetime.” The text also includes charts, graphs and encouraging words, but readers shouldn’t expect motivational directives here; rather, the book’s clear-eyed practicality is its strength.
A viable tool for business leaders who accept change as part of growth.Pub Date: Jan. 2, 2010
ISBN: 978-0313380228
Page Count: 222
Publisher: Praeger
Review Posted Online: June 18, 2012
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Categories: GENERAL BUSINESS | BUSINESS | LEADERSHIP, MANAGEMENT & COMMUNICATION
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A psychologist and Nobel Prize winner summarizes and synthesizes the recent decades of research on intuition and systematic thinking.
The author of several scholarly texts, Kahneman (Emeritus Psychology and Public Affairs/Princeton Univ.) now offers general readers not just the findings of psychological research but also a better understanding of how research questions arise and how scholars systematically frame and answer them. He begins with the distinction between System 1 and System 2 mental operations, the former referring to quick, automatic thought, the latter to more effortful, overt thinking. We rely heavily, writes, on System 1, resorting to the higher-energy System 2 only when we need or want to. Kahneman continually refers to System 2 as “lazy”: We don’t want to think rigorously about something. The author then explores the nuances of our two-system minds, showing how they perform in various situations. Psychological experiments have repeatedly revealed that our intuitions are generally wrong, that our assessments are based on biases and that our System 1 hates doubt and despises ambiguity. Kahneman largely avoids jargon; when he does use some (“heuristics,” for example), he argues that such terms really ought to join our everyday vocabulary. He reviews many fundamental concepts in psychology and statistics (regression to the mean, the narrative fallacy, the optimistic bias), showing how they relate to his overall concerns about how we think and why we make the decisions that we do. Some of the later chapters (dealing with risk-taking and statistics and probabilities) are denser than others (some readers may resent such demands on System 2!), but the passages that deal with the economic and political implications of the research are gripping.
Striking research showing the immense complexity of ordinary thought and revealing the identities of the gatekeepers in our minds.Pub Date: Nov. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-374-27563-1
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Review Posted Online: Sept. 4, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2011
Categories: BUSINESS | LEADERSHIP, MANAGEMENT & COMMUNICATION | PSYCHOLOGY
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BOOK REVIEW
Noted number cruncher Sperling delivers an economist’s rejoinder to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
Former director of the National Economic Council in the administrations of Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, the author has long taken a view of the dismal science that takes economic justice fully into account. Alongside all the metrics and estimates and reckonings of GDP, inflation, and the supply curve, he holds the great goal of economic policy to be the advancement of human dignity, a concept intangible enough to chase the econometricians away. Growth, the sacred mantra of most economic policy, “should never be considered an appropriate ultimate end goal” for it, he counsels. Though 4% is the magic number for annual growth to be considered healthy, it is healthy only if everyone is getting the benefits and not just the ultrawealthy who are making away with the spoils today. Defining dignity, admits Sperling, can be a kind of “I know it when I see it” problem, but it does not exist where people are a paycheck away from homelessness; the fact, however, that people widely share a view of indignity suggests the “intuitive universality” of its opposite. That said, the author identifies three qualifications, one of them the “ability to meaningfully participate in the economy with respect, not domination and humiliation.” Though these latter terms are also essentially unquantifiable, Sperling holds that this respect—lack of abuse, in another phrasing—can be obtained through a tight labor market and monetary and fiscal policy that pushes for full employment. In other words, where management needs to come looking for workers, workers are likely to be better treated than when the opposite holds. In still other words, writes the author, dignity is in part a function of “ ‘take this job and shove it’ power,” which is a power worth fighting for.
A declaration worth hearing out in a time of growing inequality—and indignity.Pub Date: May 5, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-9848-7987-5
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Penguin Press
Review Posted Online: Feb. 26, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2020
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