The new edition of this influential and bestselling book is concerned
with how people come together to achieve a productive purpose. Survival
and success in business and social terms have always depended upon our
ability to form and sustain social organisations. People have a deep
need to be creative and to belong. By creating positive organisations we
can fulfil these needs and build a worthwhile society. One of the
failures of organisations is precisely the lack of efficient and
effective social organisation, which is what this whole book is about.
Poor social organisation, including poor leadership, are major drivers
of poor productivity and lead people to give up or retreat into a
minimalist approach of just doing what is needed to get by and survive.
The authors provide a language for developing, discussing, thinking and
working with propositions about organisations and management. They do
not tell you what decision to make but rather present tools to help you
consider, analyse and predict the consequences of your decisions.
This new edition is much broader in its application areas - public,
private and not-for-profit sectors. It contains new models and
propositions with regard to types of social organisation, domains of
work and the nature and use of authority. It contains a range of new
case studies, and throughout looks at how these ideas can be used to
achieve an organisation's purpose while encouraging creative working. It
is not a book about fads or fashion but an integrated approach that
offers the user the benefit of foresight.
