Biblio
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(1989). Management.
"Rosabeth Kanter has argued that power can easily become institutionalized. Those whom others believe to possess power seem to find it easier to influence other people around them—and thus to garner even more genuine power. By the same token, 'powerlessness' is a difficult condition to overcome." (p. 306)
(1989). Moral Mazes: The World of Corporate Managers.
"Given the proper assurances and assumptions, acceptance of blame can be an exercise in loyalty, although it is never without risk. But the more frequent case is when those with the power to do so foist or allow blame to fall on unwary or inexperienced underlings. They do so to cover up their own mistakes, or to extricate themselves from potentially embarrassing or politically untenable situations." (p. 86)
(1989). Nasty People: How to Stop Being Hurt by Them Without Becoming One of Them.
"A punch in the nose is obvious, and it heals. However, an attack on self-esteem—at the right moment and in the right way—can last a lifetime." (p. 9)
(1989). Secrets : On the Ethics of Concealment and Revelation.
"The alarms of whistleblowers would be unnecessary were it not for the many threats to the public interest shielded by practices of secrecy in domains such as law, medicine, commerce, industry, science, and government. Given these practices, whistleblowers perform an indispensable public service; but they do so at great human cost, and without any assurance that they uncover most, or even the worst, abuses. While they deserve strong support in their endeavors, every effort should therefore be made to combat the problems they signal by other means." (p. 228)
(1989). Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive.
"Genius may not always be associated with messiness, but the following words are very much to the point:
Picture to yourself the darkest, most disorderly place imaginable...blotches of moisture covered the ceiling; an oldish grand piano, on which the dust disputed the place with various pieces of engraved and manuscript music; under the piano (I do not exaggerate) an unemptied chamber pot; beside it a small walnut table accustomed to the frequent overturning of the secretary placed on it; a quantity of pens encrusted with ink, compared with which the proverbial tavern pens would shine; then more music. The chairs, mostly cane—seated, were covered with plates bearing the remains of last night's supper, and with wearing apparel, etc.That passage is found in The Lives of the Great Composers, by Harold C. Schonberg. It is Baron de Tremont's description of Beethoven's 'Office." (p. 141)
(1990). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
"There is the principle of potential, the idea that we are embryonic and can grow and develop and release more and more potential, develop more and more talents. Highly related to potential is the principle of growth—the process of releasing potential and developing talents, with the accompanying need for principles such as patience, nurturance, and trust." (p. 34)
(1990). Beware the Naked Man Who Offers You His Shirt.
"You'll find politics in every office, and I'm including a two-person hot-dog stand in my definition of an office. People are always jockeying for position, and the kinds of people I'm talking about are the only three kinds I'm certain are out there: sharks, shark-bait, and shark-proof. Which one are you?" (p. 49)
(1990). The Fifth Discipline.
"All too often, teams in business tend to spend their time fighting for turf, avoiding anything that will make them look bad personally, and pretending that everyone is behind the team's collective strategy—maintaining the appearance of a cohesive team. To keep up the image, they seek to squelch disagreement; people with serious reservations avoid stating them publicly, and joint decisions are watered-down compromises reflecting what everyone can live with, or else reflecting one person's view foisted on the group. If there is disagreement, it's usually expressed in a manner that lays blame, polarizes opinion, and fails to reveal the underlying differences in assumptions and experience in a way that the team as a whole could learn."
(1990). FLOW: the Psychology of Optimal Experience.
"Each of us has a picture, however vague, of what we would like to accomplish before we die. How close we get to attaining this goal becomes the measure of the quality of our lives. If it remains beyond reach, we grow resentful or resigned; if it is at least in part achieved, we experience a new sense of happiness and satisfaction." (p. 9)
(1990). Force For Change : How Leadership Differs from Management.
"Leadership is different [from management]. Achieving grand visions despite the obstacles always requires an occasional burst of energy, the kind that certain motivational and inspirational processes can provide. Such processes accomplish their energizing effect, not by pushing people in the right direction, as a control mechanism often does, but by satisfying very basic human needs: for achievement, belonging, recognition, self-esteem, a sense of control over one's life, and living up to one's ideals. These processes touch us deeply and powerfully, and elicit a most powerful response." (p. 63)
(1990). From Conflict to Resolution: Strategies for Diagnosis and Treatment of Distressed Individuals, Couples, and Families.
"The more an individual has been exposed to no-win situations, the more readily he assumes that other situations cannot be changed for the better. As a consequence, such individuals put out less effort to try to control new conflictual situations." (p. 89)
(1990). Hidden Agendas.
"A psychological contract and a relationship that works for both parties is flexible enough to accomodate both shattered illusions and changing circumstances. However, that flexibility is not easy to come by and most of us at least initially resist altering our expectations in any way. Instead, we become all the more determined to make the other person or the relationship measure up to our standards." (p 147)
(1990). Leadership Is an Art.
"Leadership is not an easy subject to explain. A friend of mine characterizes leaders simply like this: 'Leaders don't inflict pain; they bear pain.'" (p. 11)
(1990). The Minneapolis Job Bank, 1991.
"YOU'RE FIRED!!
You are not the first and will not be the last to go through this traumatic experience. Thousands of professionals are fired every week. Remember, being fired is not a reflection on you as a person. It is usually a reflection of your company's staffing needs and its perception of your recent job performance. Share the fact with your relatives and friends. Being fired is not something of which to be ashamed....
Avoid mentioning you were fired while arranging interviews." (p. 31)
You are not the first and will not be the last to go through this traumatic experience. Thousands of professionals are fired every week. Remember, being fired is not a reflection on you as a person. It is usually a reflection of your company's staffing needs and its perception of your recent job performance. Share the fact with your relatives and friends. Being fired is not something of which to be ashamed....
Avoid mentioning you were fired while arranging interviews." (p. 31)
(1990). Narcissistic Process and Corporate Decay: The Theory of the Organizational Ideal.
"When work, the productive process, becomes display, its meaning becomes lost. Its performance as part of the organizational drama becomes the only meaning it has. Accordingly, the parts it plays in the organization's transactions with the world become irrelevant. When this happens, work loses its adaptive function and becomes mere ritual. At the same time, the rituals that serve to express the individual's identification with the organization ideal, especially those connected with rank, come to be infused with significance for the individual. They become sacred. Thus, reality and appearance trade places. The energy that once went into the production of goods and services of value to others is channelled into the dramatization of a narcissistic fantasy in which the organization's environment is merely a stage setting." (p. 61)
(1990). Self Directed Work Teams: The New American Challenge.
"The most potentially damaging kind of performance feedback at this stage is one-on-one feedback from manager to team member. Because that relationship carries so much emotional baggage...it's important to find alternatives to manager-to-employee feedback wherever possible." (p. 135)
(1990). Shame & Guilt: Masters of Disguise.
"Children who grow up in shaming environments quickly learn that one must blame or be blamed. There are very few compromises in shaming environments. It often feels like we are playing 'emotional hot potato' in our adult relationships...Passing the blame to someone else is our attempt to protect an already injured self from more wounds." (p. 82)
(1990). Staying Employed: What You Must Do Today to Ensure You Have a Job Tomorrow.
"Working at home has become acceptable—in fact, fashionable—just in the last few years. Many people dream of not having to fight traffic or play office politics but instead staying home and doing their work on a computer." (p. 179)
(1990). Total Customer Service : The Ultimate Weapon.
"The hard truth is that there's little place for the traditional middle manager in companies that go all out to serve customers. The skills that most such managers have mastered—protecting their fiefdoms, proving their importance by forcing all information and communications to flow through their offices, meticulously enforcing bureaucratic controls—become serious liabilities. Yet no matter how flat the organization, no company can function without middle management.
The solution service leaders often take is to redefine the middle manager's job. Instead of acting like a boss, he is encouraged to behave like a helper." (p. 106)
(1990). Working With Difficult People.
Phenomenal advances in technology have led to a demand for speedier production. Couple that with hiring and firing in the labor market, and stress may become overwhelming. Even patient people can appear apoplectic."
(1990). The Workplace Within: Psychodynamics of Organizational Life.
"Irrational processes highlight the limits of classical organization theory. Theorists such as Simon, Thompson, and Galbraith* have argued that all organizations face continuing uncertainties and have suggested that organizational routines and structures, such as maintaining inventory to meet unpredictable demands for products, are mechanisms for reducing uncertainty. But because these theorists have not linked the experience of uncertainty to people's feelings of anxiety, they have posed the issue of uncertainty too narrowly and have proposed solutions that rely on such rational methods as mathematical calculation and organization design. When anxiety intrudes, rational procedures are distorted by irrational processes. For example, the managers of the manufacturing and sales departments in many companies fight chronically with one another over inventory policy, each blaming the other for the gap between market demand and company supply. Because they feel anxious, they project their sense of blame and failure outward, often scapegoating the person they must cooperate with to reduce the uncertainty they face." (p. 3)
(1990). Shared Minds: The New Technologies of Collaboration.
"As William James wrote in Great Men and Their Environment, 'The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual; the impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community.'" (p. xxiii)
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