Biblio
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(1981). Not Working: an Oral History of the Unemployed.
"There are people in this book whose living rooms have turned into prisons without bars, and others who gleefully feel they have escaped jobs that were jails. There are people who have been broken by years of idleness, and others who have discovered emotional resources that allow them to endure—even, in a way, to triumph. In short, the men and women in this book vary enormously. Yet amid the variety there is a common feeling, stated with bitter clarity at times, only half spoken at others, and occasionally not yet formed as a thought but rather a troubled notion whispering behind the words. It is a crime that has been committed." (p. 1)
(1986). Notes on How to Live in the World (and Still Be Happy).
"Thinking that appearances are everything, the ego naturally concludes that 'you are what you do.' During our middle span of life the seemingly affable question 'What do you do?' really means 'Are you somebody?' and most of us think far too much about how to word our answer should some stranger at a party ask us this question, even though if we just took a moment to look at our feelings we would see that we really don't care what a stranger thinks of us. It is only our ego that attempts to judge, and being quite blind, all it can see is other egos. This common social line of attack and counterattack has so very little to do with what people are at their core that you would think it would be self-evident that a person's means of earning a living reveals only the most superficial and insignificant information about what he or she is, and yet the issue of career has become a source of great unhappiness." (p. 115)
(2001). Nothing personal, just business: a guided journey into organizational darkness.
"Witnessing, bearing witness, and writing for others to see and hear—these are the beginning of hope for genuine change. If I cannot alter what I see, I can at least attest to the fact that it happened and is still happening." (p. xvi)
(2001). Now, Discover Your Strengths.
"These are the two assumptions that guide the world's best managers:
1. Each person's talents are enduring and unique.
2. Each person's greatest room for growth is in the areas of his or her greatest strength." (p. 8)
1. Each person's talents are enduring and unique.
2. Each person's greatest room for growth is in the areas of his or her greatest strength." (p. 8)
(1998). Nuts! : Southwest Airlines' Crazy Recipe for Business and Personal Success.
CURIOSITY FUELS LEARNING
Do you ever wonder how little kids learn? They try things. Their curiosity is uninhibited. Free from the constraints of a 'We've always done it this way' or 'It'll never work' kind of world, they get great joy out of putting the wheels of exploration and experimentation in motion. Their minds are free to wander. Totally enthralled, they exhibit a refreshing sense of wonder while they learn." (p. 113)
Do you ever wonder how little kids learn? They try things. Their curiosity is uninhibited. Free from the constraints of a 'We've always done it this way' or 'It'll never work' kind of world, they get great joy out of putting the wheels of exploration and experimentation in motion. Their minds are free to wander. Totally enthralled, they exhibit a refreshing sense of wonder while they learn." (p. 113)
(1977). The OK Boss.
"[Good bosses] know that everyone needs strokes. Some people need more strokes of a certain kind than others. Without these particular strokes, they tend to shrivel up in some way. Their work may go sour, their ideas may become less creative, they may be absent more often, and their errors and poor decisions may increase." (p. 78)
(1999). Old Dogs, New Tricks: On Creativity and Collaboration.
"The lack of candor is one of the biggest tragedies in organizations because we don't speak truth to power. And so people who know the truth don't speak the truth where it would help. In my own study, I discovered that seven out of ten people will not speak up even if they know that what their boss is going to do is going to get him and the company in trouble. They will not be candid. They are not encouraged to speak up—they see dissenters being punished, not rewarded, and so the truth never gets out. There is no incentive for speaking up." (p. 34)
(1979). On a Clear Day You Can See General Motors.
"These were not immoral men who were bringing out this car. These were warm, breathing men with families and children who as private individuals would never have approved this project for a minute if they were told 'You are going to kill and injure people with this car.' But these same men, in a business atmosphere, where everything is reduced to terms of costs, profit goals and production deadlines, were able as a group to approve a product most of them wouldn't have considered approving as individuals." (p. 6)
(1966). On Aggression.
"Aggression elicited by any deviation from a group's characteristic manners and mannerisms forces all its members into a strictly uniform observance of these norms of social behavior. The nonconformist is discriminated against as an 'outsider' and, in primitive groups, for which school classes or small military units serve as good examples, he is mobbed in the most cruel manner." (p. 79)
(1994). On Becoming a Leader.
"In sum, we have the means within us to free ourselves from the constraints of the past, which lock us into imposed roles and attitudes. By examining and understanding the past, we can move into the future unencumbered by it. We become free to express ourselves, rather than endlessly trying to prove ourselves." (p. 79)
(1995). On Great Service: A Framework for Action.
"Job-relevant learning is a good tonic that helps human beings overcome the repetitiousness, fatigue, 'onstage' pressures, and sense of powerlessness that accompany many service roles. Personal growth is a source of self-esteem for people in jobs that can burn up esteem as though it were jet fuel." (p. 189)
(2004). One Who Is Not Busy, The: Connecting with Work in a Deeply Satisfying Way.
As taskdoers, worker bees, we hit one note and play it over and over again. We bury ourselves in activity the way substance abusers bury themselves in drink or drugs; no matter how many things we race to do during the day, there's always something more to be done. When there is a threat of hurt or disappointment due to circumstances beyond our control, there's no time to feel it. The monthly sales figures have to be calculated, the client gifts selected and sent, the copier contract gone over, the boardroom reserved for a partners meeting. The substance abuser's overall feeling is unpleasant enough—frantic, uneasy—but he does manage to avoid the real lows: the grief, the anger, the disillusionment." (p.97)
(1999). Only the Pronoid Survive.
"[Helena Cronin's] version of Darwinism shows that altruism and generosity create more rewards than their opposites do. She introduced the CEOs to the flip side of paranoia: "pronoia"—the idea that everyone is not out to get you, but that they are out to love you, or at least to appreciate you, if you reciprocate. According to the new Darwinism, only the pronoid survive—in fact, only the pronoid endure and flourish."
(1998). Organization Development : Behavioral Science Interventions for Organization Improvement.
"Two basic assumptions about individuals in organizations pervade organization development. The first assumption is that most individuals have drives toward personal growth and development if provided an environment that is both supportive and challenging. Most people want to develop their potential. The second assumption is that most people desire to make, and are capable of making, a greater contribution to attaining organization goals than most organizational environments permit." (p. 67)
(1997). Organization Development and Change.
"It is important to emphasize that people who have low growth or social needs are not inferior to those placing a higher value on these factors. They are simply different. It is also necessary to recognize that people can change their needs through personal growth and experience. OD practitioners need to be sensitive to individual differences in work design and careful not to force their own values on others." (p. 357)
(1956). The Organization Man.
"It is the nature of a new idea to confound current consensus—even the mildly new idea. It might be patently in order, but, unfortunately, the group has a vested interest in its miseries as well as its pleasures, and irrational as this may be, many a member of organization life can recall instances where the group clung to known disadvantages rather than risk the anarchies of change." (p. 440)
(2004). The organization of information.
(1998). Org Behv&perfm.
(1996). Organizational Behavior: Concepts, Controversies, Applications.
"In a recent poll, when workers were asked what they valued most in a job, 64 percent gave the highest rating to 'ability to work independently.' That even beat out 'high income' and 'chances for promotion.'"
(1979). Organizational Psychology.
"The main conclusion will be that there is no one answer, no 'perfect' way to organize or to design work. Instead, one must become diagnostic and flexible, sensitive to events and their subjective interpretation by the participants in a given situation, so that one can choose a course of action appropriate to that situation."
(1982). The Organizational Unconscious: How to Create the Corporate Culture You Want and Need.
"One company we had the good fortune to work with some twenty years ago was shockingly changed when we visited it recently. People who had once cared deeply for one another and demonstrated high levels of creativity and innovation had become bureaucratized and uncaring, both in their work and in their interrelationships. The company had grown in size, but had shrunk in quality. Its earlier dynamism had become only a memory in the minds of the few who had originally created it." (p. 110)
(1991). Organizations on the Couch: Clinical Perspectives on Organizational Behavior and Change.
"The institutionalized work group accomplishes work in a routine and rational fashion. Procedure, rules, and regulations may take priority over quality of work, substance of product and service, and overall meaning and purpose of task accomplishment. Intra- and interorganizational boundaries are often rigid and inflexible. Bureaucratic administration replaces leadership." (p. 204)
(1998). Organizing Genius: The Secrets of Creative Collaboration.
"There is a lesson here that could transform our anguished workplaces overnight. People ache to do good work. Given a task they believe in and a chance to do it well, they will work tirelessly for no more reward than the one they give themselves." (p. 215)
(1994). The origins of totalitarianism.
"Those who aspire to total domination must liquidate all spontaneity, such as the mere existence of individuality will always engender, and track it down in its most private forms, regardless of how unpolitical and harmless these may seem." (p. 456)
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