Biblio
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(1986). Management for Productivity.
"Structure should accommodate the people within the system. People vary in their skills, interests, needs, personalities. These individual differences must be accommodated by organization structures to maximize support for individual work efforts." (p. 167)
(1993). Quality connections: transforming schools through Total Quality Management.
"In common practice, managers believe that employees are motivated by merit ratings and performance evaluations—that people have to be enticed into high performance with rewards or punished for low productivity by probations, demotions, layoffs, and so forth. In the transformed setting, we believe that people intrinsically want to do a good job. They take a great deal of pride in workmanship. According to Deming, goals, slogans, performance pay, and incentives actually destroy motivation for doing good work." (p. 10)
(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."
(1992). Beyond Therapy, Beyond Science : A New Model for Healing the Whole Person.
"Dr. Diane Fassel and I wrote The Addictive Organization. Since the publication of that book, thousands of people have spoken or written to us about their recovery and what has happened to them in their addictive organizations as a result of their personal recovery. Their words differ, and the stories are essentially the same. They go like this: 'I'm an addict [alcoholic, workaholic—whatever kind of addict, it doesn't matter]. I am in recovery and I feel good about my recovery. It's going well. My life has really improved and I basically feel happy. Because of my recovery and, I believe, the changes in me, my family is changing. We are all actually getting better. But...I am not sure that I can maintain my sobriety and continue to work in my addictive workplace. If I really put my sobriety first, I cannot continue to work where I do." Often, I suggest to these people that they attend Al-Anon, with the workplace as the addict in their lives." (p. 192)
(2000). Breaking the Watch: The Meanings of Retirement in America.
"For most individuals, the formal and public recognition of retirement is commonly marred by the pale content of the official rites mean to dramatize it. These ceremonies tend to be formulaic, predictable, and cliched...
The private and informal ceremonies created for retirees prove to be more fulfilling because of their style, their substance, their process, and their audience. They allow people to leave work on a good note, and give them a sense of control over this transition." (p. 54)
The private and informal ceremonies created for retirees prove to be more fulfilling because of their style, their substance, their process, and their audience. They allow people to leave work on a good note, and give them a sense of control over this transition." (p. 54)
(1993). C.G. Jung and the Problem of Evil: The Strange Trial of Mr. Hyde.
"To the extent that we are egocentric we live in fear, under a sense of constant threat. We also live out and fulfill only a small portion of our personalities, because the egocentric life is a cramped life. It is like living inside a walled, heavily defended castle. Here we try to feel secure, but it does not occur to us that our castle is also our prison." (p. 133)
(2006). How to Succeed in Business Without a Penis: Secrets and Strategies for the Working Woman.
"Dr. Provinc, a professor of neurobiology, psychology, and the anthropology of laughter at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, would most likely agree with me. As he has said already:"
Fashions on laughter change, but one thing that stays the same is you can't laugh at people in power. Laugh at your boss, and you may be the recipient of that practical joke known as the little pink slip.
(1991). Driving Fear Out of the Workplace: How to Overcome the Invisible Barriers to Quality, Productivity, and Innovation.
"W. Edwards Deming tells those who attend his seminars, 'We are here to make another kind of world.' He expresses the broad scope of the goal, and its enormity....
To achieve another kind of world requires a deep understanding of where we are now. The awareness of fear can help us move to this point. In the same way that many organizations have had to face harsh news about waste, scrap, and rework within their production processes, there is also harsh news about fear in human interactions in the workplace. But once past the denial that is so common, the real possibilities begin to emerge. When managers accept the role of facilitator, coach, and consultant, a dramatic shift takes place. Traditional notions of controlling and telling give way to inviting and guiding. Commitment switches to the long term—to the development of quality products and services, to long-lasting, mutually satisfying relationships with customers, vendors, and employees." (p. 240)
To achieve another kind of world requires a deep understanding of where we are now. The awareness of fear can help us move to this point. In the same way that many organizations have had to face harsh news about waste, scrap, and rework within their production processes, there is also harsh news about fear in human interactions in the workplace. But once past the denial that is so common, the real possibilities begin to emerge. When managers accept the role of facilitator, coach, and consultant, a dramatic shift takes place. Traditional notions of controlling and telling give way to inviting and guiding. Commitment switches to the long term—to the development of quality products and services, to long-lasting, mutually satisfying relationships with customers, vendors, and employees." (p. 240)
(1996). Working with Problems of Narcissism in Entrepreneurial Organizations.
"Already weakened by environmental forces not facilitative of psychological development, and further constrained by widespread idealization of narcissistic relating as a kind of counterphobic social defense, workers and managers in entrepreneurial organizations, and entrepreneurs and their organizations themselves, seem almost dragged by inertia into object-delinked modes of work. How to generate creativity and productive developmental momentum out of such frightening chaos is the task."
(1998). Disconnected: How Six People from AT&T Discovered the New Meaning of Work in a Downsized Corporate America.
"Surely the old social contract, that basic exchange of loyalty for security, has been destroyed....
Some business theorists envision a new workplace that will accomodate both organizational flexibility and individual fulfillment. In their hopeful vision, companies will offer opportunities; employees will provide labor and talent. Workers will shuttle between projects and employers while organizations add and subtract staffers in a seamless ebb and flow.
Can we allow ourselves any such optimism? If the experiences of these six people are any indication, this process will be messy, and the concomitant dislocation severe. 'I must manage my own career' is indeed the brave new rallying cry of today's company man, but it must be tempered by one basic fact: Power, as ever, resides with the organization." (p. 200)
Some business theorists envision a new workplace that will accomodate both organizational flexibility and individual fulfillment. In their hopeful vision, companies will offer opportunities; employees will provide labor and talent. Workers will shuttle between projects and employers while organizations add and subtract staffers in a seamless ebb and flow.
Can we allow ourselves any such optimism? If the experiences of these six people are any indication, this process will be messy, and the concomitant dislocation severe. 'I must manage my own career' is indeed the brave new rallying cry of today's company man, but it must be tempered by one basic fact: Power, as ever, resides with the organization." (p. 200)
(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."
(1999). Breakthrough Inc. : High Growth Strategies for Entreneurial Organizations.
"Conversation is the most powerful peacetime business and organizational tool ever devised....While others stress the word communication, to us the word conversation is the better approach for two reasons. First, communication, as the word is normally used in everyday life, is usually one-sided. Second, conversation implies an exchange of views, or as Julio Olalla says, 'a changing together'. Third, communication focuses on the act of getting an already designed and known message out, while conversation implies two or more people jointly seeking some knowledge, truth, or strategy that they individually have not figured out entirely." (p. 153)
(2003). Breathing For A Living.
"A team is a team because of their spirit, not always because they play perfectly together all the time." (p. 189)
(1986). Cult of Information.
"The result [in Vonnegut's book Player Piano1] is a technocratic despotism wholly controlled by information technicians and corporate managers. The book raises the issue whether technology should be allowed to do all that it can do, especially when its powers extend to the crafts and skills which give purpose to people's lives. The machines are slaves, Vonnegut's rebellious engineer-hero insists. True, they make life easier in many ways; but they also compete with people. And 'anybody that competes with slaves becomes a slave.' As Vonnegut observes, 'Norbert Weiner, a mathematician, said all that way back in the nineteen-forties.'" (p. 11)
- 1. (1952). Player Piano.
(2002). No-Collar: The Humane Workplace and Its Hidden Costs.
"'For the walking wounded among the great many of us', Terkel asserted, 'the blue collar blues is no more bitterly sung than the white collar moan.'" (p. 6)
(2000). Andy Grove to CDU: Why Are You Looking at Me?.
Fast Company. Abstract
"This false notion suggests that you get better outcomes by eliminating the weaker member of a group. That is supported by another Darwinian misreading: Only the strong survive, and the outcome will be better if you have people of first-rate strength. These assumptions have become the foundation of growth, progress, and capitalism: stronger, better, more. But they are not part of Darwinism. Darwin's insight was that competition can lead to all sorts of new ecological niches. If predators are devouring animals (like you) during the day, you might become nocturnal. If predators are becoming stronger or larger, you could become smaller, more mobile, or less visible. There is nothing vengeful or vindictive about Darwinian theory. Invoking Darwin to justify cutthroat behaviors is wrong."
(1994). The Customer Comes Second.
"Everybody has ideas, some better than others. But they live in people's minds. They need to be brought out, refined, tested, and implemented. Ideas are the lifeblood of a company. The weave the fabric of its future, but they're fragile.
"Ideas come to the curious—those who ask, "What would improve our lives?" But ideas have to be nurtured and cultivated. The stifling of ideas starts when we're young and told, "Just do it and don't ask why," or "That's just the way it is." Creativity and innovation aren't emphasized enough in our schools, homes, or professional lives, but people who seek these gifts can and will find them in the right environment." (p. 156)
"Ideas come to the curious—those who ask, "What would improve our lives?" But ideas have to be nurtured and cultivated. The stifling of ideas starts when we're young and told, "Just do it and don't ask why," or "That's just the way it is." Creativity and innovation aren't emphasized enough in our schools, homes, or professional lives, but people who seek these gifts can and will find them in the right environment." (p. 156)
(2008). Just Enough Anxiety: the hidden driver of business success.
"Compassionate leaders assume goodwill. They respect and see the good in others, and in themselves. They honor people's feelings as true for them. And they try to minimize people's pain and fear while maximizing their sense of well-being. In the words of George Washington Carver: 'How far you go in life depends on your being tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of the weak and strong. Because someday in life you will have been all of these.'" (p. 84)
(1995). Idiot Letters.
(2003). Work to Live.
"We fear the silence of time not filled, the questions and self-judgment that may come up when we're not completely consumed with work or other distractions. Yet it's precisely the ability to stop and still your mind long enough to figure out what you need in life and whether your current course is getting you there that allows you to reach your goals. It frees you from the external noise to find out what a meaningful life is for you. Otherwise, you're running blind on somebody else's track, where busyness and productivity substitute for what's missing inside, peace of mind, which can only be generated within that same mind." (p. 141)
(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)
(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.'"
(1987). Unlimited Power.
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