Biblio
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(1987). Unlimited Power.
(1994). The Unwritten Rules of the Game: Master Them, Shatter Them, and Break Through the Barriers to Organizational Change.
"The orthodox wisdom tells us that if we want major and rapid changes in behavior, then the only way to achieve them is for people to feel that their jobs are on the line. So, we are supposed to engineer circumstances that will create a sense of urgency—let us be honest, a sense of fear—within the body of our organizations. And with that stick we can beat our employees into a new mindset.
The established dogma is a lie. Worse, it is a self serving and dangerous lie. It has become a myth that we have all been told for so long by so many people, that we in turn have passed it on to our own colleagues and so reinforced the apparent validity and common sense of the gospel." (p. 137)
The established dogma is a lie. Worse, it is a self serving and dangerous lie. It has become a myth that we have all been told for so long by so many people, that we in turn have passed it on to our own colleagues and so reinforced the apparent validity and common sense of the gospel." (p. 137)
(1999). Vampires: Emotional Predators Who Want to Suck the Life Out of You.
"One main tenet of emotional vampirism is particularly true in the workplace: ...while the victim is devoting the bulk of his time and energy to getting a job done, the emotional vampire is busy maneuvering." (p. 114)
"Actually dangerous (AD) emotional vampirism in the workplace is likely in situations which are highly charged emotionally, such as...when a career is at stake, and the actually dangerous is in a position to make or break an underling.
These are among the most difficult of situations, with material and emotional factors compounding each other." (p. 139)
"Actually dangerous (AD) emotional vampirism in the workplace is likely in situations which are highly charged emotionally, such as...when a career is at stake, and the actually dangerous is in a position to make or break an underling.
These are among the most difficult of situations, with material and emotional factors compounding each other." (p. 139)
(2012). Victory Secrets of Attila the Hun.
159. Abstract
"An organization's worst enemies are seldom external. Rather, the most deadly and damaging threats come from those who are so driven toward power that their political maneuvering can destroy the very group in which they seek authority." (p. 44)
(2000). The Virtue of Prosperity : finding values in an age of techno-affluence.
"We think of leisure as 'not working', but in the economic literature is more precisely defined as 'doing what you want to do.' Rich people frequently find their jobs challenging and interesting, and so they would prefer to put in overtime at the office rather than sit at a beach sipping margaritas. If you're a welder or a longshoreman, sitting on a beach seems like a wonderful respite from the grime and ardor of your everyday existence; but if you're a scientist or an inventor pursuing a new discovery, an entrepreneur building a new business, an acclaimed singer or athlete, or a successful author completing a magnum opus, lounging on the sand in the middle of nowhere can seem like an awful waste of time." (p. 82)
(2006). Vital Friends: the people you can't afford to live without.
"Undoubtedly, there are thousands of managers in the workplace who have no business bearing the responsibility for developing other people. Most of us have had a boss like this at one point or another. They make you miserable, less productive, and even diminish your physical health. But we have also found thousands of exceptional managers who have the opposite effect, and they have something in common: These great managers care about each of their employees as a real human being, not just a means to an end." (p. 63)
(1994). The Warren Buffett Way: Investment Strategies of the World's Greatest Investor.
The Institutional Imperative
"...an unseen force he calls 'the institutional imperative'—the lemminglike tendency of corporate management to imitate the behavior of other managers, no matter how silly or irrational it may be. It was, Buffett confesses, the most surprising discovery of his business career. At school he was taught that experienced managers of companies were honest, intelligent, and automatically made rational business decisions. Once out in the business world, he learned instead that 'rationality frequently wilts when the institutional imperative comes into play.' " (p. 84)
"...an unseen force he calls 'the institutional imperative'—the lemminglike tendency of corporate management to imitate the behavior of other managers, no matter how silly or irrational it may be. It was, Buffett confesses, the most surprising discovery of his business career. At school he was taught that experienced managers of companies were honest, intelligent, and automatically made rational business decisions. Once out in the business world, he learned instead that 'rationality frequently wilts when the institutional imperative comes into play.' " (p. 84)
Compare with "group narcissism" (Fromm) or "institutional narcissism" (Duncan). Also Howard Schwartz, et. al.
(2004). We Got Fired!: . . . And It's the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Us.
"If I have one piece of advice to young people, it's to break rules. Let's first assume you are delivering way more than what is expected of you. You have to do much more than the expected to compete today, because there are plenty of people out there happy to do the minimum. If you are already overdelivering, and breaking a rule will help you deliver more, then go ahead. Ask yourself a question: Will breaking a rule really help everyone out, not just myself? Is the answer yes? Then go ahead and break the rule. I'm not talking about doing anything criminal or unethical. I mean not following some stupid policy or convention. You'll have more fun and everyone will learn more. Most of all, you'll deliver more." (p. 264)
(2001). Weaving complexity and business: engaging the soul at work.
356. Abstract
"How then do we begin to generate caring and connected relationships at work? We begin with awareness. We begin by being aware of the world of relationships and by paying as much attention to these micro dynamics in organizations—how they influence social processes and psychological health of individuals—as we currently do to macro issues, such as economic performance and strategies." (p. 305)
(1995). Wellness 9 to 5: Managing Stress at Work.
"My encounter with job stress is part of an epidemic. In the United States, over 75 percent of all visits to primary care physicians are to treat stress-related complaints, and the vast majority of these complaints are job-related (Wallace, 1992). Work site stress can kill the very spirit of who we are as individuals. Our dreams, aspirations, creative goals, and hopes to 'make a difference' wither and die if the stress of daily work obscures our capabilities." (p. 5)
(1990). A whack on the side of the head: how you can be more creative.
"If you think you're creative, then you'll put yourself in situations where you can use your creativity, where you can take a few risks and try some new approaches, and where you come up with new ideas." (p. 166)
(2001). What Do You Want to Do When You Grow Up?: Starting the Next Chapter of Your Life.
"Job burnout, write Maslach and Goldberg, with its feelings of frustration, ineffectiveness, or failure, is 'a particularly tragic endpoint for professionals who entered the job with positive expectations [and] enthusiasm.'" (p. 56)
(1988). What Works at Work: Lessons from the Masters.
"The sunflower effect—doing what your boss wants you to do—is still very powerful in all organizations because the power in all organizations is significantly at the top. Conflicts at high levels in organizations reverberate all the way down, reflecting the displacement downward of that anger and hostility and once again reflecting power at the top." (p. 282)
(1994). What You Can Change and What You Can't: The Complete Guide to Successful Self-Improvement.
"It is a disturbing idea that depressed people see reality correctly while nondepressed people distort reality in a self-serving way. As a therapist I was trained to believe that it is my job to help a depressed patient to feel both happier and see the world more clearly. I am supposed to be the agent of happiness as well as the agent of truth. But maybe truth and happiness antagonize each other. Perhaps what we have considered good therapy for a depressed patient merely nurtures benign illusions, making the patient think that her world is better than it actually is." (p. 199)
(1987). When All You've Ever Wanted Isn't Enough.
"Martin Buber, an important twentieth-century theologian, taught that our relationships with others take either of two forms. They are either I-It, treating the other person as an object, seeing him only in terms of what he does, or I-Thou, seeing the other as a subject, being aware of the other person's needs and feelings as well as one's own." (p. 54)
(2001). When Corporations Rule the World.
"Human well-being will never be secured by the kind of economic growth demanded by a rogue financial system that values people, planet, and the civilizing bonds of culture and community only for their current market price. It comes down to a question of how we want to live. If we want societies that value life more than money, we must re-create our institutions accordingly." (p. 229)
(1999). When Good Companies Do Bad Things: Responsibility and Risk in an Age of Globalization.
"From our participation in scores of conferences and conversations about corporate social responsibility, we have found that most of us bring heavy baggage to this issue in the form of deep-seated and often unquestioned assumptions." (p. 96)
(1987). When Smart People Fail.
"There are several basic kinds of organizational environments: corporate, entrepreneurial, intrapreneurial (independent responsibility within a corporate structure), partnership, or complete autonomy (in the case of the artist). Sometimes the real you is in the wrong environment." (p. 109)
(1998). When Smart People Work for Dumb Bosses: How to Survive in a Crazy and Dysfunctional Workplace.
"This is not the first time you've heard how an evaluation report mashed the brains of an employee. Why so powerful? It's this. The assessment of performance comes from the one person above all others who can most affect the emotions of an employee, one's supervisor. That changes the meaning of everything. That document can alter reality: Good can become bad, up can become down, and smart become dumb." (p. 135)
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