Post A need 800 words Do not share this work to anyone or upload this work in any website Answer the question and stray from the point, step by steps Read Doc1 first , do not miss anything or details. If you have any question or need anything please let me know All work is needed write in right format and no errors in grammar, punctuation, word choice, spelling. Do not use any real name or real company name, for all work you can use “A company” without a name (No need to introduce the company in detail) or use I have Internship in a company. Do not use too many other resources, use your own words to finish this or change and rewrite it, do not share this work or upload it to any website, and it has to be your original work. Answer from the perspective of students, only internship experience The only resource you can use is DOCB Post A Choose one (or more) of the readings from this week, and discuss what would be most interesting to you to discuss. For example, you could reflect on something that stood out to you as particularly interesting because it made you think about things in a different way or perhaps because you strongly agree or disagree with one of the readings or the material in it. You could discuss how a reading related or did not relate to other course readings and/or something you thought to be particularly good or bad advice Need 800 words All information you need is in DOC2, the only resources(book) you can use is DOC2. Topic you can choose form this list from P&N Part 15: Management Fables: Lessons for Success • Reading 1: Who Moved My Cheese? o o The four main characters, Sniff, Scurry, Hem, and Haw - what did each do/what was their role in the story? Haw experienced several eye-opening moments through his journey and offered several quotes. What do these quotes mean in the context of the story (what was going on in the story that led to Haw’s realization relating to each of these quotes)? • o ▪ ▪ ▪ • • What would you do if you weren’t afraid? Smell the cheese often so you know when it is getting old. Imagining myself enjoying new cheese even before I find it leads me to it. ▪ The quicker you let go of old cheese, the sooner you find new cheese. ▪ It is safer to search in the maze than remain in a cheeseless situation. ▪ Old beliefs do not lead you to new cheese. ▪ Move with cheese and enjoy it! o The 3 important things that Haw realized (this is specifically outlined in the reading) and what they mean. Reading 2: Fish! o Using the fish market as a metaphor for other organizations, Mary Jane Ramirez recognizes several main premises regarding employees. ▪ List, understand, and explain these premises. ▪ From these premises, Mary Jane develops 4 recommendations for employees for their personal effectiveness. ▪ List, understand, and explain these recommendations. Reading 3: The Fun Minute Manager o Working definition of a fun work environment o Work-related benefits research has identified regarding fun at work o List, understand, and explain the "major fun insights" o List, understand, and explain the set of 10 guiding principles (implementation tactics) that will help managers implement and sustain a fun work environment. from P&N Part 16: Contemporary Thinking About Management: • • Reading 1: What Were They Thinking? o List, understand, and explain the 3 main reasons why organizations make poor decisions o List, understand, and explain the realms in which these errors can be readily seen (i.e., people-centered strategies, creating effective workplaces, leadership and influence, measures of success, organizations and public policy) and the major mistakes made within each Reading 3: Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense o What is evidence-based management, and why is it used? o List, understand, and explain the 3 main reasons businesses do not use evidencebased management. o What are the basics of evidence-based management? o List, understand, and explain the half-truths in managing people and organizations Tenth Edition The Manager's Bookshelf A MOSAIC OF CONTEMPORARY VIEWS Jon L. Pierce University of Minnesota Duluth John W. Newstrom University of Minnesota Duluth PEARSON Boston Columbus Indianapolis New York San Francisco Upper Saddle River Amsterdam Cape Town Dubai London Madrid Milan Munich Paris Montréal Toronto Delhi Mexico City São Paulo Sydney Hong Kong Seoul Singapore Taipei Tokyo Editor in Chief: Stephanie Wall Senior Acquisitions Editor: April Cole Director of Editorial Services: Ashley Santora Editorial Assistant: Bernie Ollila Director of Marketing: Maggie Moylan Senior Marketing Manager: Nikki Ayana Jones Marketing Assistant: Gianna Sandri Production Manager: Tom Benfatti Creative Director: Jayne Conte Cover Designer: Suzanne Behnke Cover Art: Fotolia Full-Service Project Management: Sudha Balasundaram/ S4Carlisle Publishing Services Composition: S4Carlisle Publishing Services Printer/Binder: STP Courier Cover Printer: STP Courier Text Font: Minion Pro Copyright © 2014, 2011, 2008 by Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America. This publication is protected by Copyright, and permission should be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise. To obtain permission(s) to use material from this work, please submit a written request to Pearson Education, Inc., Permissions Department, One Lake Street, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458, or you may fax your request to 201-236-329〇. Many of the designations by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and the publisher was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in initial caps or all caps. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data The manager's bookshelf : a mosaic of contemporary views / Jon L. Pierce, John W. Newstrom. —10th ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-13-304359-4 ISBN-10: 0-13-304359-2 1. Management literature—United States. I. Pierce, Jon L. (Jon Lepley). II. Newstrom, John W HD70.U5M32 2014 658—dc23 2012030473 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 PEARSON ISBN 10: 0-13-304359-2 ISBN 13: 978-0-13-304359-4 We dedicate this book to our beloved grandchildren 一 Madison, Peter, Eric, Sawyer, William, Graham, Ruth Emma, Ruth Lillian, Axel, and Pearl 一 who give us great pleasure, pride, and strong hope for the future. BRIEF CONTENTS PART 1 Introduction 1 PART 2 Best-Seller “Classics” 23 PART 3 High- and Low-Performing Organizations 65 PART 4 Organizational Strategy and Execution 83 PART 5 Organizational Culture 95 PART 6 Motivation 117 PART 7 Leadership and Power 139 PART 8 Teams and Teamwork 155 PART 9 Organizational Change 163 PART 10 "Undiscussable" Issues at Work 175 PART 11 Managerial Decision Making 193 PART 12 Ethics and Authenticity in the Workplace 211 PART 13 Emotions: Positive, Negative, and Irrational 223 PART 14 Social Technologies at Work 239 PART 15 Management Fables: Lessons for Success 251 PART 16 Contemporary Thinking About Management 263 iv CONTENTS Preface ix Acknowledgments xii About the Editors xv PART 1 Introduction 1 Reading 1: Understanding and Using the Best Sellers, Jon L. Pierce and John W. Newstrom 5 Reading 2: Reflections on the Best Sellers and a Cautionary Note, Jon L. Pierce and John W. Newstrom, with Larry L. Cummings, Brad Jackson, and Anne Cummings 12 PART 2 Best-Seller “Classics” 23 Reading 1: The Practice of Management, Peter F. Drucker, summarized by John D. Stavig and Shaker A. Zahra 27 Reading 2: The One Minute Manager, Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson, summarized by Charles C. Manz 31 Reading 3: Out of the Crisis, W. Edwards Deming, summarized by William B. Gartner and M. James Naughton 35 Reading 4: The Human Side of Enterprise, Douglas McGregor, summarized by Gayle Porter 40 Reading 5: Maslow on Management, Abraham H. Maslow, summarized by John W. Newstrom 46 Reading 6: The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen R. Covey, summarized by John W. Newstrom 48 Reading 7: The Fifth Discipline, Peter M. Senge, summarized by Dorothy Marcic 50 Reading 8: Competitive Advantage, Michael E. Porter, summarized by Sara A. Morris 56 PART 3 High- and Low-Performing Organizations 65 Reading 1: Good to Great, Jim Collins, summarized by Mary Kate Gross 67 v vi Contents Reading 2: Big Winners and Big Losers, Alfred A. Marcus, summarized by Allen Harmon 71 Reading 3: How the Mighty Fall, Jim Collins, summarized by Tanya Pietz 78 PART 4 Organizational Strategy and Execution 83 Reading 1: Higher Ambition, Michael Beer, Russell Eisenstat, Nathaniel Foote, Tobias Fredberg, and Flemming Norrgren, summarized by Cathy A. Hanson 85 Reading 2: Responsible Restructuring, Wayne F. Cascio, summarized by Stephen Rubenfeld 90 PART 5 Organizational Culture 95 Reading 1: Coming to a New Awareness of Organizational Culture, Edgar H. Schein 97 Reading 2: Transparency: How Leaders Create a Culture of Candor, Warren Bennis, Daniel Goleman, and James O’Toole, summarized by Patrick Heraty 111 PART 6 Motivation 117 Reading 1: The Enthusiastic Employee, David Sirota, Louis A. Mischkind, and Michael Irwin Meltzer, summarized by Shelley Ovrom 119 Reading 2: Psychological Capital, Fred Luthans, Carolyn M. Youssef, and Bruce J. Avolio, summarized by Cathy A. Hanson 124 Reading 3: Why Pride Matters More Than Money, Jon R. Katzenbach, summarized by AnneMarie Kaul 129 Reading 4: Mojo, Marshall Goldsmith, with Mark Reiter, summarized by Meghan Brown 134 PART 7 Leadership and Power 139 Reading 1: Positive Leadership, Kim Cameron, summarized by Jodi Nelson 141 Reading 2: Bad Leadership, Barbara Kellerman, summarized by Warren Candy 144 PART 8 Teams and Teamwork 155 Reading 1: Beyond Teams, Michael M. Beyerlein, Sue Freedman, Craig McGee, and Linda Moran, summarized by David L. Beal 157 PART 9 Organizational Change 163 Reading 3: Power, Jeffrey Pfeffer, summarized by Kristie J. Loescher 148 Contents Reading 1: Building the Bridge as You Walk on It, Robert E. Quinn, summarized by Peter Stark 165 Reading 2: A Sense of Urgency, John P. Kotter, summarized by David L. Beal 169 PART 10 "Undiscussable” Issues at Work 175 Reading 1: Workplace Survival, Ella W. Van Fleet and David D. Van Fleet, summarized by Kelly L. Nelson 177 Reading 2: The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t, Robert I. Sutton, summarized by Stephen Rubenfeld 182 Reading 3: It’s All Politics, Kathleen Kelley Reardon, summarized by AnneMarie Kaul 187 PART 11 Managerial Decision Making 193 Reading 1: Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman, summarized by Amber Christian 195 Reading 2: Sup er Crunchers, Ian Ayres, summarized by Brian Russell 199 Reading 3: Gut Feelings: The Intelligence of the Unconscious, Gerd Gigerenzer, summarized by Rebecca M. C. Boll 205 PART 12 Ethics and Authenticity in the Workplace 211 Reading 1: Blind Spots, Max H. Bazerman and Ann E. Tenbrunsel, summarized by Linda Hefferin 213 Reading 2: Authentic Leadership, Bill George, summarized by Randy Skalberg 218 PART 13 Emotions: Positive, Negative, and Irrational 223 Reading 1: Prisoners of Our Thoughts, Alex Pattakos, summarized by Gary P. Olson 225 vii viii Contents Reading 2: Toxic Emotions at Work, Peter J. Frost, summarized by Gary J. Colpaert 230 Reading 3: The Upside of Irrationality and Predictably Irrational, Dan Ariely, summarized by Fred J. Dorn 235 PART 14 Social Technologies at Work 239 Reading 1: Groundswell, Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff, summarized by Amber Christian 241 Reading 2: Content Rules, Ann Handley and C. C. Chapman, summarized by Richard Kimbrough 246 PART 15 Management Fables: Lessons for Success 251 Reading 1: Who Moved My Cheese?, Spencer Johnson, summarized by Gary Stark 253 Reading 2: Fish!, Stephen C. Lundin, Harry Paul, and John Christensen, summarized by John W. Newstrom 257 Reading 3: The Fun Minute Manager, Bob Pike, Robert C. Ford, and John W. Newstrom, summarized by John W. Newstrom 259 PART 16 Contemporary Thinking About Management 263 Reading 1: What Were They Thinking?, Jeffrey Pfeffer, summarized by Adam Surma 265 Reading 2: Managing, Henry Mintzberg, summarized by Bob Stine 270 Reading 3: Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense, Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton, summarized by Jannifer David 274 Reading 4: Hot, Flat, and Crowded, Thomas Friedman, summarized by Bob Stine 281 Glossary of Terms 285 Bibliography of Inclusions 292 Index 295 PREFACE The last several decades were marked by a proliferation of books published on topics in management, leadership, and various organizational issues. This explosion of products apparently reflects an intense and continuing fascination by managers, future managers, and the general public with the inner workings of organizations and their managers, work teams and their leaders, and employees. Bookstores around the country and distribution sources on the Internet continue to offer a large number of management books, and many of these books have appeared on various “business best-seller” lists—some remaining there for months and years at a time. Clearly, managers and others (including business school students at both graduate and undergraduate levels, as well as liberal arts students who are headed for a career in business or public organizations) remain intrigued by, and are searching for insights, perspectives, and answers in, the popular business literature. We prepared The Manager's Bookshelf: A Mosaic of Contemporary Views to serve the needs of both managers and management students. Significant numbers of individuals in both of these groups do not have sufficient time to read widely, yet many people find themselves involved in conversations where someone else refers to ideas such as evidence-based management, vision, self-directed work teams, Mojo, ethics, fun at work, or organizational politics. We believe that a laudable and critical goal for managers, as well as all students of management, is to remain current in their understanding of the wide range of views being expressed about organizational and management practices. To help you become a better-informed organizational citizen, we prepared The Manager's Bookshelf, which introduces you to a broad array of popular management books—both recent and “ classic.” NEW TO THIS EDITION The 10th edition of The Manager's Bookshelf introduces a fresh new set of readings into the book. A dozen new best sellers are included, replacing numerous other books that had become somewhat dated. The goal of these (and previous) revisions was to make The Manager's Bookshelf an undeniably comprehensive and up-to-date compendium of highly readable book summaries. Here are the major changes we designed and built into the new edition: • In response to user feedback, we abbreviated and streamlined Part 1, so that it now contains two key readings: (1) our Introduction (exploring the popularity of best sellers, the rationale for the book, the typical contents of the best sellers, a structured format for critiquing them, our selection strategy, and commentary on the authors of the best sellers) and (2) some cautionary observations provided by four reflective scholars. • We have gradually expanded the size of Part 2, “Best-Seller 'Classics, as additional books prove themselves to be enduring across time in their popularity. • We inserted a new section, Part 5, that provides solid perspectives on the important topic of organizational culture. • At the urging of reviewers, we created a brief section on teams and teamwork. • We changed the thrust of Part 11 so as to capture both the rational and intuitive perspectives on managerial decision making. • We developed a new Part 13 on social technologies at work. ix x Preface • Part lb, "Contemporary Thinking About Management,” was expanded to include Henry Mintzberg's unique perspectives on managing, as well as Thomas Friedman's thoughts on how the world is changing. • Other new inclusions in this edition accent themes of leadership transparency, Mojo, collaborative intelligence, “Super Crunchers,” and irrationality. A COLLAGE AND A MOSAIC The Manager's Bookshelf, as a book of concise summaries, does not express the views of just one individual on the management of organizations, nor does it attempt to integrate the views of several dozen authors. Instead, this book is a collage 一 a composite portrait constructed from a variety of classic and contemporary sources (approximately 80 percent of the books summarized here were published in the twenty-first century). The Manager's Bookshelf provides you with insights into many aspects of organizational management from the perspectives of a diverse and sometimes provocative group of management writers, including some highly regarded authors such as Peter Drucker, Jim Collins, Barbara Kellerman, Thomas Friedman, Jeffrey Pfeffer, Stephen Covey, John Kotter, Spencer Johnson, and Michael Porter. Through this collection we will introduce you to the thoughts, philosophies, views, and experiences of a number of authors whose works have caught the attention of today’s management community—and often captivated them in the process. This book contains a rich array of pieces—a veritable mosaic that provides a fascinating overall portrait of management. From a topical perspective, its inclusions focus on motivation, ethics, social technologies, corporate strategy, leadership styles, and other key concerns of managers. This collection includes the views from a variety of individuals—some practitioners (eg, Bill George), some philosophers (eg, Peter Drucker and Warren Bennis), some management consultants (e.g., Jim Collins and Marshall Goldsmith), and some organizational scholars (e.g., Jeff Píềíĩềr and John Kotter). The selections reflect a wide variety in terms of their tone and tenor, as well as the diverse bases for their conclusions. Indeed, critics have praised some of the authors, works as passionate, invaluable, stimulating, and insightful, whereas other business books have been attacked as being overly academic, superficial, redundant, glib, or unrealistic. NATURE OF THE INCLUSIONS The nature and source of the ideas expressed in this collection are diverse. Some inclusions are prescriptive in nature, whereas others are more dispassionately descriptive; some are thoughtful and philosophical, whereas others limit themselves to reporting directly on their personal or organizational experiences; some of these works represent armchair speculation, whereas others are based on empirical study. Finally, the selections take a variety of forms, but the majority of the inclusions are concise and objective summaries of popular books that have been specially prepared for inclusion in The Manager's Bookshelf. This mosaic of readings can provide you with useful insights, provoke your own reflective thinking, and spark stimulating dialogue with your colleagues about the management of today's organizations. We expect that these readings will prompt you to raise questions of yourself and your peers about the viability of many of the ideas expressed by these authors regarding the practice of organizational management. We hope and predict that these readings will prompt you to read the full text of many of the authors' works; these books often contain rich anecdotes, compelling stories, provocative assertions, and detailed data that are not possible to include in our summaries. Finally, we Preface xi hope that these summaries will encourage you to continue your managerial self-development through a variety of avenues, including ongoing reading of both the popular and scientific (research-based) literature. If these goals are met, our purpose for assembling this collection will be realized. INSTRUCTOR’S MANUAL This book offers, to adopters, an Instructor’s Manual that includes suggestions for using best sellers in the classroom, a sample classroom assignment, and provocative questions for each reading to guide instructors in classroom discussion. The Instructor's Manual is available to adopting instructors for download at www.pearsonhighered.com/irc. Registration is simple and gives the instructor immediate access to other titles and new editions. Instructors should visit http://247.pearsoned.com/ for answers to frequently asked questions and for toll-free user-support phone numbers. COURSESMART CourseSmart eTextbooks were developed for students looking to save on required or recommended textbooks. Students simply select their eText by title or author and purchase immediate access to the content for the duration of the course using any major credit card. With a CourseSmart eText, students can search for specific keywords or page numbers, take notes online, print out reading assignments that incorporate lecture notes, and bookmark important passages for later review. For more information or to purchase a CourseSmart eTextbook, visit www.coursesmart.com. Jon L. Pierce John W. Newstrom ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We express our sincere and very warm appreciation to several colleagues who played key roles in the preparation of this edition of The Manager's Bookshelf: A Mosaic of Contemporary Views. Their commitment and dedication to students of organizations and management, coupled with their varied contributions, made this improved and updated edition possible. We would also like to single out our late friend and colleague, Larry L. Cummings (Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota and "The Institute”)，for his "Reflections on the Best Sellers” contained in Part 1 of our book. We also value the additional comments provided on managerial best sellers offered by Brad Jackson, Anne Cummings, and John Newstrom, which greatly enrich the discussion in that section. CONTRIBUTORS TO THIS EDITION We extend our thanks to a number of individuals who provided us with a great deal of assistance and support for the preparation of this book. Many of our management colleagues, former students, and professional managerial associates took the time and effort—always under tight time pressures—to contribute to this book by carefully reading and preparing a summary of one of the selected books. Many of these individuals wanted to offer their personal opinion, add their endorsements or criticisms, and surface elements of their own management philosophies, but at our urging they stuck to their assigned task. To them we express our thanks for their time, energy, and commitment to furthering management education. The following individuals prepared book summaries for this edition of The Manager's Bookshelf: Best-Seller “Classics” John D. Stavig and Shaker A. Zahra, University of Minnesota—Drucker’s The Practice of Management Charles C. Manz, University of Massachusetts, Amherst—Blanchard and Johnson’s The One Minute Manager William B. Gartner, Georgetown University, and M. James Naughton, Expert-Knowledge Systems, Inc.—Deming’s Out of the Crisis Gayle Porter, Rutgers University—McGregor’s The Human Side of Enterprise John W. Newstrom, University of Minnesota Duluth 一 Maslow’s Maslo-w on Management John W. Newstrom, University of Minnesota Duluth 一 Covey’s The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People Dorothy Marcic, Vanderbilt University 一 Senge’s The Fifth Discipline Sara A. Morris, Old Dominion University 一 Porter’s Competitive Advantage High- and Low-Performing Organizations Mary Kate Gross, U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs 一 ollins’s Good to Great Allen Harmon, University of Minnesota Duluth and WDSE-TV 一 Marcus’s Big Winners and Big Losers Tanya Pietz, Riverwood Healthcare Center 一 Collins’s Ho^w the Mighty Fall xii Acknowledgments xiii Organizational Strategy and Execution Cathy A. Hanson, City of Manhattan Beach—Beer and Associates Higher Ambition Stephen Rubenfeld, University of Minnesota Duluth—Cascio’s Responsible Restructuring Organizational Culture Patrick Heraty, Hilbert College—Bennis, Goleman, and O’Toole’s Transparency Motivation Shelley Ovrom, City of Azusa 一 Sirota, Mischkind, and Meltzer’s The Enthusiastic Employee Cathy A. Hanson, City of Manhattan Beach 一 Luthans, Youssef, and Avolio’s Psychological Capital AnneMarie Kaul, Fiduciary Counseling, Inc.一 Katzenbach’s Why Pride Matters More Than Money Meghan Brown, Target Corporation 一 Goldsmith's MOJO Leadership and Power Jodi Nelson, SISU Medical Solutions 一 ameron's Positive Leadership Warren Candy, Allete/Minnesota Power 一 Kellerman's Bad Leadership Kristie J. Loescher, University of Texas at Austin 一 Pfeffer's Po^w^r Teams and Teamwork David L. Beal, formerly of Consolidated Papers, Inc. 一 Beyerlein, Freedman, McGee, and Moran’s Beyond Teams Organizational Change Peter Stark, University of Minnesota Duluth 一 Quinn's Building the Bridge as You Walk on It David L. Beal, formerly of Consolidated Papers, Inc. 一 Kotter's A Sense of Urgency "Undiscussable” Issues at Work Kelly L. Nelson, AK Steel 一 Van Fleet and Van Fleet's Workplace Survival Stephen Rubenfeld, University of Minnesota Duluth 一 Sutton's The No-Asshole Rule AnneMarie Kaul, Fiduciary Counseling, Inc.一 Reardon's It's All Politics Managerial Decision Making Amber Christian, Phoenix Endeavors 一 Kahneman's Thinking, Fast and Slow Brian Russell, University of Kansas 一 Ayres's Super Crunchers Acknowledgments xiv Rebecca M. C. Boll, Central Minnesota Federal Credit Union 一 Gigerenzer's Gut Feelings Ethics and Authenticity in the Workplace Linda Hefferin, Elgin Community College—Bazerman and Tenbrunsel's Blind Spots Randy Skalberg, University of Minnesota Duluth 一 George's Authentic Leadership xv Acknowledgments Emotions: Positive, Negative, and Irrational Gary P. Olson, Center for Alcohol and Drug Treatment—Pattakos’s Prisoners of Our Thoughts Gary J. Colpaert, Milwaukee’s Eye Institute—Frost’s Toxic Emotions at Work Fred J. Dorn, Career Management Resources—Ariely’s The Upside of Irrationality, and Predictably Irrational Social Technologies at Work Amber Christian, Phoenix Endeavors, LLC—Li and Bernoff’s Groundswell Richard Kimbrough, University of Nebraska-Lincoln 一 Handley and Chapman’s Content Rules Management Fables: Lessons for Success Gary Stark, Northern Michigan University 一 Johnson’s Who MovedM-y Cheese? John W. Newstrom, University of Minnesota Duluth 一 Lundin, Paul, and Christensen's Fish! John W. Newstrom, University of Minnesota Duluth 一 Pike, Ford, and Newstrom's The Fun Minute Manager Contemporary Thinking About Management Adam Surma, Target Corporation 一 Pfeffer's What Were They Thinking? Bob Stine, University of Minnesota College of Continuing Education 一 Mintzberg's Managing Jannifer David, University of Minnesota Duluth 一 Pfeffer and Sutton's Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense Bob Stine, University of Minnesota College of Continuing Education 一 Friedman's Hot, Flat, and Crowded Several persons provided gracious and constructive feedback on the previous edition and offered useful suggestions for improvement; the reviewers include Barry Brock, Casey G. Cegielski, Christopher Clott, Fred J. Dorn, Patrick Heraty, Richard Kimbrough, Jerry Kinard, Kristie Loescher, Belinda A. Raines, and Brian Russell. We also appreciate the recommendations for inclusions in this 10th edition made by several reviewers, adopters, and friends. To our spouses, who provided alwayspatient emotional support and encouragement, we want to say a very enthusiastic “Thank you” for helping us complete this project—and many others over the past several years—in a timely fashion. We appreciate the supportive environment provided by Dean Kjell Knudsen of the Labovitz School of Business and Economics, and our colleagues in the Department of Management Studies here at the University of Minnesota Duluth. We gratefully acknowledge the continued project commitment from Stephanie Wall and the editorial support and assistance that we have received from April Cole, Lynn Savino Wendel, and Claudia Fernandes, all at Prentice Hall. Jon L. Pierce John W. Newstrom ABOUT THE EDITORS Jon L. Pierce is a Morse-Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor of Management and Organization in the Department of Management Studies, Labovitz School of Business and Economics at the University of Minnesota Duluth (ƯMD). He received his Ph.D. in Management and Organizational Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the author of more than 70 papers that have been published in academic journals and various professional conference proceedings. His publications have appeared in the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Educational and Psychological Measurement, Journal of Management, Journal of Managerial Psychology, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, Journal of Social Psychology, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, Organizational Dynamics, Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, Personnel Psychology, and Review of General Psychology. His research interests are focused on the psychology of work and organizations, with particular focus on organization-based self-esteem, psychological ownership, and collective psychological ownership. He has served on the editorial review board for the Academy of Management Journal, Personnel Psychology, Journal of Management, and the Scandinavian Management Journal, and serves as an ad hoc reviewer for several other management and organizational behavior journals. He is the coauthor of seven other books: Management, Managing, Management and Organizational Behavior: An Integrated Perspective, Psychological Ownership in the Organizational Context: Theory, Research Evidence, and Application and, along with John W. Newstrom, Alternative Work Schedules, Windows into Management, and Leaders and the Leadership Process (now in its sixth edition). Along with Randall B. Dunham, he is the recipient of the Yoder-Heneman Personnel Research Award; in 2000, he was inducted into the Academy of Management Journals Hall of Fame; in 2005, he received UMD's prestigious Chancellor's Award for Distinguished Research. Dr. Pierce may be contacted at jpierce@d.umn.edu. John W. Newstrom is a Morse-Alumni Distinguished Teaching Professor Emeritus of Management in the Labovitz School of Business and Economics at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Prior to that, he completed his doctoral degree in Management and Industrial Relations at the University of Minnesota and then taught at Arizona State University for several years. His work has appeared in publications such as Academy of Management Executive, Personnel Psychology, California Management Review, Journal of Management, Academy of Management Journal, Human Resource Planning, Supervision, Business Horizons, and the Journal of Management Development. He has served as an editorial reviewer for the Academy of Management Review, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Executive, Human Resource Development Quarterly, Advanced Management Journal, and the Journal of Management Development. He is the author or coauthor of over 45 books in various editions, including The Fun Minute Manager (with Bob Pike and Robert c. Ford), Organizational Behavior: Human Behavior at Work (13th edition), Supervision (10th edition), Transfer of Training (with Mary Broad), Leading with a Laugh (with Robert c. Ford), and The Big Book of Teambuilding Games (with Ed Scannell). He is a member of the University of Minnesota's Academy of Distinguished Teachers and has served on the boards of directors for several nonprofit organizations. He has also actively served as a seminar leader for leadership development programs around the country and as a consultant to many other organizations. One of his current interests lies in helping managers create and sustain a fun and productive work environment for their employees. Dr. Newstrom may be contacted at jnewstro@d.umn.edu. xvi This page intentionally left blank PART ONE Introduction Part 1 contains two readings. The first, Understanding and Using the Best Sellers, prepared by us (Pierce and Newstrom), the editors of The Manager,s Bookshelf, provides insight into why such large numbers of management-oriented books have found themselves in bookstores, on coffee tables in homes, on Internet bookselling sites, and on the bookshelves of those who manage today’s organizations. Four elements stand out in Reading 1: 1. We discuss the rationale for this mosaic of contemporary views on organizations and management and provide you with insight into the nature and character of (and authors in) The Manager,s Bookshelf. 2. We challenge you to read and critically reflect upon this collection of thoughts and experiences. 3. We invite you to debate the ideas and philosophies that are presented here. 4. We encourage you to let these contemporary management books stimulate your thinking, to motivate you to look more systematically into the science of organizations and management, and to provide you with the fun of learning something new. We also share a substantial concern that these contemporary books will be seen as “quick-and-dirty” cures for organizational woes. Therefore, we encourage you to read books such as Ralph H. Kilmann’s Beyond the Quick Fix: Managing Five Tracks to Organizational Success. In it, the author provides a valuable message that should serve as the backdrop to your consumption and assessment of all of the purported “one- minute” cures for organizational problems and for the management of today’s complex organizations. Kilmann encourages managers to stop perpetuating the myth of organizational and management simplicity and to develop a more complete and integrated approach to the management of today’s complex organizations. Many other writers have echoed these thoughts and cautions. For example: • Marcus Alexander and Harry Korine (Harvard Business Review, December 2008, p. 74) contended that the unquestioned assumptions underlying management trends/fads “often lead to sloppy thinking” and “preclude careful examination of the pros and cons of the 1 2 Part One ♦ Introduction specific choices made by a single company in a particular context.” • John Hollon (Worforce Management, June9, 2008, p. 42) concluded that “Everyone is looking for the magic formula that will help make them a great manager who can drive workers (and the organization) to the next level.” • Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton (Harvard Business Review, January 2006, p. 63) asserted that “Executives routinely dose their organizations with strategic snake oil: discredited nostrums, partial remedies, or untested management miracle cures.” • Chris Argyris (Flawed Advice and the Managerial Trap contends that popular management advice, while published as valid and actionable and widely adopted, leads to unintended consequences and an inability to systematically correct the identified deficiencies. • Eric w. Ford and colleagues (Academy of Management Executive, 2005,19:4, p. 24) contended that “rather than being interested in systematic and long-term solutions, managers are generally infatuated with the latest fads and fashions in their search for quick fixes.” • Geoffrey Colvin (Fortune, June 28, 2004, p. 166), in “A Concise History of Management Hooey,” suggested that “Idea-starved managers … were so hungry they created an entirely new phenomenon in publishing, the business bestseller.” • Danny Miller and associates (Business Horizons, July-August 2004, p. 7) begin their condemnation of management fads by getting right to the point: “Many popular administrative ideas are epitomized by a search for the quick fix—a simple solution that all organizations can embrace to make employees more productive, customers happier, or profits greater.” • Charles s. Jacobs (Management Rewired, 2009) asserts that “Many of the management practices we’ve taken for granted are not only ineffective, (but) they actually produce the opposite of what we contend.” • Shari Caudron ÇTD, June 2002, p. 40) noted that the fads presented in management best sellers are taken up with great enthusiasm for a short while and then quickly discarded. This, she suggests, is done because “the tools were sold into companies by charlatans who didn’t understand the concepts but knew the right buzzwords.” • Kristine Ellis (Training, April 2001, p. 41) concluded that the worst of the best sellers are promoted as “magic bullets” to solve organizational problems but often become little more than the prevailing “flavor of the month.” • Business columnist Dale Dauten (The Arizona Republic, February 19, 2004, p. D3) suggested that there are three types of business books on the market to avoid: the Obvious (compilations of clichéd truths), the Envious (stories of successful businesspeople), and the Obnoxious (books that insult your intelligence). • Danny Miller and Jon Hartwick (Harvard Business Review, October 2002, p. 26) noted that management fads usually have short life cycles and are quickly replaced by new ones. Typical fads, according to Miller and Hartwick, are simple, prescriptive, falsely encouraging, broadly generic, overly simplistic, closely matched to contemporary business problems, and novel and fresh appearing, and achieve their legitimacy through the status and prestige of gurus (as opposed to the merits of empirical evidence). • Jeffrey Pfeffer (Harvard Business Review, February 2005, p. 54) surveyed the 30,000- plus business books in print and concluded that “Much of this advice is, at best, a waste of time. At worst, it can—if followed—create more problems than it solves.” • Another cautionary perspective is provided in The Witch Doctors. After systematically and objectively reviewing a wide array of popular management books, authors John Micklethwait Reading One ♦ Understanding and Using the Best Sellers and Adrian Wooldridge concluded that managers must become critical consumers of these products. Being critical means being suspicious of the faddish contentions, remaining unconvinced by simplistic argumentation by the authors, being selective about which theory might work for you, and becoming broadly informed about the merits and deficiencies of each proposal. • Going back in history several centuries, English philosopher and empiricist Sir Francis Bacon (Of Studies, 1625) stated that we should “read not... to believe and take for granted, but to weigh and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested.” Readers interested in more comprehensive and critical portraits of the management best-seller literature are encouraged to read “Management Fads: Emergence, Evolution, and Implications for Managers" by Jane Whitney Gibson and Dana V. Tesone (Academy of Management Executive, 2001, 15:4, pp. 122-133) or “Separating Fads from Facts: Lessons from The Good, the Fad, and the Ugly” by David J. Ketchen, Jr. and Jeremy c. Short (Business Horizons, 2011, 54, pp. 17-22). Another useful source lies in the reviews of four books on management fads in “Resource Reviews” (Academy of Management Learning and Education, 2003, 2:3, pp. 313-321). You will discover, from your reading of the best-seller summaries in this book, that there are currently several types of author “voices” that provide messages relevant to management education. One is the organizational scholar (e.g., Wayne Cascio), who by training and a lifetime of careful work has a strong foundation of rich theories of management and organization and rigorous empirical observations of organizations in action to draw upon. Another source includes management consultants and management practitioners (e.g., Bill George), who offer US perspectives from their lives on or near the “organizational firing line.” A third source of ideas lies in the professional writers (e.g., Tom Friedman), who identify an interesting idea, trend, or concept and proceed to develop and expand it into a book appropriate for a managerial audience. Traditional academics—students of tight theory and rigorous empirical study of organizational behavior—often find a large disparity among these three perspectives on management and organization. Confronted with the increasing popularity of the “best sellers,” the editors of The Manager's Bookshelf have raised a number of questions about this nontraditional management literature. For example: • Is this material “intellectual pornography,” as some have claimed? • Should college and university students be required to consume this material as a central part of their management education? • Should managers of today's organizations be encouraged to take this material seriously? • What contributions to management education and development come from this array of management books? • What are the major deficiencies or limitations of these books? For answers to these questions, we turned to three colleagues (Professors Larry L. Cummings, Brad Jackson, and Anne Cummings). We asked each of them to reflect upon the current and continued popularity of this “best-seller” literature. The questions we asked them (and their responses) are intended to help you frame, reflect back upon, and critically and cautiously consume this literature. Their reflections on the role of the popular books in management education are included in Reading 2 in this part. New to this edition are the 3 4 Part One ♦ Introduction observations that John Newstrom, one of the editors of this and the previous nine editions of The Manager's Bookshelf, has made regarding changes, trends, and phenomena in the field of management best sellers across the past 30 years. READING Understanding and Using the Best Sellers Jon L. Pierce and John W. Newstrom F or several decades now, large numbers of newly published books have focused on various aspects of management. These books have been in high demand at local bookstores and on the Internet. Several individuals have authored books that have sold millions of copies, among them Peter Drucker (The Practice of Management), Tom Peters and Bob Waterman (In Search of Excellence), spencer Johnson (Who Moved My Cheese?), Jim Collins (Good to Great), Stephen Covey (The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People), Kenneth Blanchard and Spencer Johnson (The One Minute Manager), and Thomas Friedman (The World Is Flat). Some of these books have stayed on "best-seller” lists for many weeks, months, and even years. What are the reasons for their popularity? Why have business books continued to catch the public's attention through both good economic times and bad? We have all read newspaper stories about (and many have íềlt the shock waves and personal impact of) downsizing, pension fund losses, restructuring, corporate ethical scandals, outsourcing of jobs, globalization, and excessive executive compensation and benefits. We have all read stories about the sometimes-remarkable success of foreign organizations. We have continued to watch bigger and bigger portions of our markets being dominated by foreign-owned and foreign-controlled organizations. We have witnessed foreign interests purchase certain segments of America, while more and more jobs have been moved offshore. Perhaps in response to these trends, a tremendous thirst for American success stories and a desire to learn what would prevent some of these negative phenomena have arisen. In essence, the public is receptive and the timing is right for the writing, publication, and sale of popular management books. A second reason for the upsurge in management books stems from another form of competition. Many management consultants, fighting for visibility and a way to differentiate their services, have written books they hope will become best sellers. Through the printed word they hope to provide a unique take-home product for their clients, communicate their management philosophies, gain wide exposure for themselves or their firms, and profit handsomely. Third, the best sellers also provide an optimistic message to a receptive market. In difïicult economic times or under conditions of extreme pressure to produce short-term results, managers may be as eager to swallow easy formulas for business success as sick patients are to consume their prescribed medicines. Sensing this propensity, the authors of the best sellers (and of many other books with lesser records) often claim, at least implicitly, to present managers with an easy cure for their organizational woes, or with an easy path to personal success. In a world characterized by chaos, 5 6 Part One ♦ Introduction environmental turbulence, and intense global competition, managers are driven to search for the ideas provided by others that might be turned into a competitive advantage. Fourth, we are witnessing an increased belief in and commitment to proactive organizational change and a search for differentiating one's approach. Increasing numbers of managers are rejecting the notion that "if it ain't broke, don't fix it," and instead are adopting a more constructive bias toward action. These managers are seriously looking for and experimenting with different approaches toward organizational management. Many of the popular books provide managers with insights into new and different ways of managing. At a minimum, readers are engaging in the process of benchmarking their competition and adopting "best practices" that have worked for others; hopefully, they are using the established practices of others as a springboard to developing even better ideas themselves. In their search for the "quick fix," generations of risk-taking American managers have adopted a series of organizational management concepts, such as management by objectives, job enlargement, job enrichment, sensitivity training, flextime, matrix organizational structures, and a variety of labormanagement participative schemes, such as quality circles, total quality management, and quality of work-life programs. Each has experienced its own liíề cycle, often going through the stages of market discovery, wild acceptance by passionate believers, careful questioning of it by serious critics, broad disillusionment with its shortcomings, and sometimes later being abandoned and replaced by another emerging management technique (while a few advocates remain staunchly supportive of the fad). 1 As a consequence of this managerial tendency to embrace ideas and then soon discard them, many viable managerial techniques have received a tarnished image. For example, many of the Japanese participative management systems that were copied by American managers found their way into the garbage cans of an earlier generation of American managers. The continuing demand for quick fixes stimulates a ready market for new, reborn, and revitalized management ideas. We encourage you to read and seriously reflect on the questionable probability of finding a legitimate quick fix. The search for solutions to major organizational problems in terms of "one-minute" answers reflects a Band-Aid® approach to management 一 one that is destined to ultimately fail and one that we condemn as a poor way to enrich the body of management knowledge and practice. We alert you to this managerial tendency to look for new" solutions to current organizational problems. The rush to resolve problems and take advantage of opportunities frequently leads to the search for simple remedies for complex organizational problems. Yet fềw of today's organizational problems can be solved with any single approach. The high-involvement management, the learning organization, and the compassionate corporate culture advocated in today's generation of popular management books may also join the list of tried-and-abandoned solutions to organizational woes if implemented without a broader context and deeper understanding. We especially hope that the quickfix approach to organizational problem solving that characterizes the management style of many will not be promoted as a result of this mosaic (i.e., The Manager's Bookshelf) of today's popular business books. RATIONALE FOR THIS BOOK The business world has been buzzing with terms like vision, alignment,flow, pride, authenticity, innovation, credibility, narcissism, paradigms, stewardship, the learning organization, the spirit of work, the soul of business, transformational and charismatic leaders, knowledge management, highinvolvement management and organizations, and corporate cultures. On the negative side, these terms íềed the management world's preoccupation with quick fixes and the perpetuation of management fads. On the positive side, many of these concepts serve as catalysts to the further development of sound management philosophies and practices. Reading One ♦ Understanding and Using the Best Sellers 7 In the mid-twentieth century, a fềw books occasionally entered the limelight (e.g., Parkinson's Law, The Peter Principle, The Effective Executive, and My Years with General Motors), but for the most part they did not generate the widespread and prolonged popularity of the current generation of business books. Then, too, many were not written in the readable style that makes most contemporary books so easy to consume. Managers find the current wave of books not only interesting but also enjoyable and entertaining to read. A small survey conducted by the Center for Creative Leadership found that a significant number of managers who participated in a study of their all-around reading selections chose one or more management books as their favorite.2 In essence, many of the popular management books are being read by managers 一 probably because the books are often supportive of their present management philosophies! Many managers report that these books are insightful, easily readable, interestingly presented, and seemingly practical. Whether the prescriptions in these books have had (or ever will have) a real and lasting impact on the effective management of organizations remains to be determined. Despite the overall popularity of many business best sellers, some managers do not read any current management books, and many others have read only a limited number or small parts of a fềw.* Similarly, many university students studying management have heard about some of these books, but not read them. The Manager's Bookshelf presents perspectives from (but not a criticism of) a number of those popular management books. The Manager's Bookshelf is designed for managers who are interested in the best sellers but do not have time to read all of them in their entirety and for students of management who want to be well informed as they prepare to enter the work world. Reading about the views expressed in many of the best sellers will expand the knowledge and business vocabulary ofboth groups and enable them to engage in more meaningful conversations with their managerial colleagues. Although reading the book summaries provided here can serve as a useful introduction to this literature, they should not be viewed as a substitute for immersion in the original material, nor do they remove the need for further reading of the more substantive management books and professional journals. The good news is that the popularity of these books suggests that millions of managers are reading them and are exhibiting an interest in learning about what has worked for other managers and firms. This is an important step toward the development of an opensystem paradigm for themselves and for their organizations. We strongly advocate that both managers and students be informed organizational citizens. Therefore, we believe it is important for you to know and understand what is being written about organizations and management. We also believe that it is important for you to know what is being read by the managers who surround you, some of which is contained in best sellers, and much of which is contained in more traditional management books, as well as in professional and scientific journals. 3 CONTENTS OF THE BEST SELLERS What topics do these best-selling books cover, what is their form, and what is their merit? Although many authors cover a wide range of topics and others do not have a clear focus, most of these books fall into one of several categories. Some attempt to describe the more effective and ineffective companies and identify what made them successes or failures. Others focus on "micro issues in leadership, motivation, or ethics. One group of authors focuses their attention on broad questions of corporate strategy and competitive tactics for implementing strategy. Some focus on pressing issues *For a discussion on incorporating these types of management books into management training programs, see John w. Newstrom and Jon L. Pierce, “The Potential Role of Popular Business Books in Management Development Programs, Journal of Management Development, 1989, 8:2, 13-24. 8 Part One ♦ Introduction facing the contemporary organization, such as social responsibility, globalism, the natural environment, workforce diversity, and the virtual workplace. In terms of form, many contain apparently simple answers and trite prescriptions. Others are built around literally hundreds of spellbinding anecdotes and stories. Some have used interviews of executives as their source of information; others have adopted the parable format for getting their point across. As a group, their presentation style is rich in diversity. As editors of this mosaic, we have necessarily had to exclude thousands of books while attempting to provide you with a rich exposure to an array of perspectives. For the most part, we have not included books that focus on a single executive's career success (e.g., Steve Jobs at Apple), a single successful firm (e.g., Zappos or Southwest Airlines) or failed organization (e.g., Enron), or a historical reinterpretation of a key person's practices (e.g., Leadership Secrets of Sitting Bull) or highly specialized context (e.g., Mob Rules). Judging the merits of individual best sellers is a difficult task (and one that we will leave for readers and management critics to engage in). Some critics have taken the extreme position of calling these books "intellectual wallpaper" and "business pornography." Certainly labels like these, justified or not, should caution readers. A better perspective is provided by an assessment of the sources, often anecdotal, of many of the books. In other words, much of the information in business best sellers stems from the experiences and observations of a single individual and is often infused with the subjective opinions of that writer. Unlike the more traditional academic literature, these books do not all share a sound scientific foundation. Requirements pertaining to objectivity, reproducibility of observations, and tests for reliability and validity have not guided the creation of much of the material. As a consequence, the authors are at liberty to say whatever they want (and often with as much passion as they desire). Unlike authors who publish research-based knowledge, authors of management best sellers do not need to submit their work to a panel of reviewers who then critically evaluate the ideas, logic, and data. The authors of these popular management books are able to proclaim as sound management principles virtually anything that is intuitively acceptable to their publishers and readers. Therefore, readers need to be cautious consumers who are vigilant about being misled. The ideas presented in these books need to be critically compared with the well-established thoughts from more traditional sources of managerial wisdom. CRITIQUING THESE POPULAR BOOKS Although the notion of one-minute management is seductive, we may saíềly conclude that there are no fast-acting cures to deep and complex business problems. Recognizing that simple solutions are not likely to be found in 200 pages of anecdotal stories and that the best sellers frequently present (or appear to present) quick fixes and simple solutions, we strongly encourage you to read these popular books, looking less for simple solutions and more toward using them to stimulate your thinking and challenge the way you go about doing your business. We encourage you not only to achieve comprehension and understanding but ultimately to arrive at the level of critique and synthesis 一 far more useful longterm skills. To help you approach these works more critically, we encourage you to use the following questions to guide your evaluation:4 • Author Credentials: How do the authors, backgrounds and personal characteristics uniquely qualify them to write this book? What relevant experience do they have? What unique access or perspective do they have? What prior writing experience do they have, and how was it accepted in the marketplace? What is their research background (capacity to design, conduct, and interpret the results of their Reading One ♦ Understanding and Using the Best Sellers 9 observations)? • Rationale: Why did the authors write the book? Is their self-proclaimed reason legitimate? • Face Validity: On initial examination of the book's major characteristics and themes (but before reading the entire book and actually examining the evidence provided), do you react positively or negatively? Are you inclined to accept or reject the authors' conclusions? Are the major contentions believable? Does the book fit with your prior experience and expectations, or does it rock them to the core? • Target Audience: For whom is this book uniquely written? What level of manager in the organizational hierarchy would most benefit from reading the book and why? Is it fbryou? • Integration of Existing Knowledge: A field of inquiry can best move forward only if it draws upon and then extends existing knowledge. Was this book (inappropriately) written in isolation of existing knowledge? Do the authors demonstrate an awareness of and build upon existing knowledge, while giving appropriate credit to other sources of ideas? • Readability/Interest: Do the authors engage your mind? Are relevant, practical illustrations provided that indicate how the ideas have been or could be applied? Are the language and format used appealing to you? • Internal Validity: To what degree do the authors provide substantive evidence that the phenomenon, practice, or ideas presented actually and directly produce a valued result? Does an internally consistent presentation of ideas demonstrate the processes through which the causes for their observations are understood? • Reliability/Consistency: To what degree do the authors' conclusions converge with other sources of information available to you, or with the product of other methods of data collection? Do the authors stay internally consistent in their pitch” from beginning to end of the book? • Distinctiveness: Is the material presented new, creative, and distinctive (providing a unique “valueadded” dimension), or is it merely a presentation of "old wine in newbottles”？ • Objectivity: To what extent do the authors have a self-serving or political agenda, or have the authors presented information that was systematically gathered and objectively evaluated? Have the authors offered both the pros and cons of their views? • External Validity: Are the ideas likely to work in your unique situation, or are they bound to the narrow context within which the authors operated? What are the similarities that give you confidence that the recommendations made can be safely and effectively applied to your context? • Practicality: Are the ideas adaptable? Do the authors provide concrete suggestions for application? Are the ideas readily transferable to the workplace in such a way that the typical reader could be expected to know what to do with them a fềw days later at work? Is it possible to produce an action plan directly from the material that you have read? These are only some of the questions that should be asked as you read and evaluate any popular management book. NATURE OF THIS BOOK This is the 10th edition of The Manager's Bookshelf providing strong evidence regarding the public's interest in business best sellers. Recent language editions have also appeared in Italian, Spanish, and Chinese, pointing to the international popularity of these books. The current edition includes many books that were not previously summarized, representing a substantial revision. The Manager's Bookshelf provides a comprehensive introduction to many of the major best sellers in the management field during recent years. The selections contained in this book are of two types: excerpts of original material and summaries prepared by a panel of reviewers. In one case (e.g., Edgar H. Schein), the author's original thoughts and words were captured by selecting an article (representing part of the book) that the author had written for publication in a professional journal. Here the reader will see the author's ideas directly, though only sampled or much 10 Part One ♦ Introduction condensed from the original source. The major format chosen for inclusion is a comprehensive, but brief and readable, summary of the best seller prepared by persons selected for their relevant expertise, interest, and familiarity. These summaries are primarily descriptive, designed to provide readers with an overall understanding of the book. These summaries are not judgmental in nature, nor are they necessarily a complete or precise reflection of the book author's management philosophy. Determining what constituted a management best seller worthy of inclusion was easy in some cases and more difïicult in others. From the thousands of books available for selection, the ones included here rated highly on one or more of these criteria: 1. Market Acceptance: Several books have achieved national notoriety by selling hundreds of thousands, and, occasionally, millions, of copies. 2. Provocativeness: Some books present thought-provoking viewpoints that run counter to “traditional" management thought. 3. Distinctiveness: A wide variety of topical themes of interest to organizational managers and students of management is presented. 4. Representativeness: In an attempt to avoid duplication from books with similar content within a topical area, many popular books were necessarily excluded. 5. Author Reputation: Some authors (e.g., John Kotter or Jim Collins) have a strong reputation for the quality of their thinking and the insights they have generated; therefore, some of their newer products were included. AUTHORS OF THE BEST SELLERS It is appropriate for a reader to examine a management best seller and inquire, “Who is the author of this book?" Certainly the authors come from varied backgrounds, which can be both a strength and weakness for the best sellers as a whole. Their diversity of experience and perspective is rich, yet it is possible that some authors are ill-qualified to speak and portray themselves as experts. Some of the authors have been critically described as self-serving egotists who have little to say constructively about management, but who say it with a flair and passion such that reading their books may appear to be very exciting. Some books are seemingly the product of armchair humorists who set out to entertain their readers with tongue in cheek. Other books on the bestseller lists have been written with the aid of a ghostwriter (i.e., by someone who takes information that has been provided by another and then converts it into the lead author's story) or a professional writer who helps a busy executive organize and present his or her thoughts. Other Reading One ♦ Understanding and Using the Best Sellers 11 books are the product of a CEO's reflection on his or her career or heartfelt positions on contemporary issues in organizations (e.g., author Bill George). A rather new and refreshing change has been the emergence in the best-seller literature ofbooks prepared by respected academic professionals who have capably applied the best of their substantive research to pressing management problems and subsequently integrated their thoughts into book form. (Examples in this edition of such academics include Wayne Cascio, Alfred Marcus, Kim Cameron, Jeffrey Pfeffer, Henry Mintzberg, and Richard Hackman.) In summary, it maybe fascinating to read the "inside story” or delve into a series of exciting anecdotes and "war stories,” but the reader still has the opportunity and obligation to challenge the author's credentials for making broad generalizations from that experience base. Conclusions We encourage you to read and reflect on this collection of thoughts from the authors of today's generation of management books. We invite you to expand and enrich your insights into management as a result of learning from this set of popular books. We challenge you to question and debate the pros and cons of the ideas and philosophies that are presented by these authors. We hope you will ask when, where, how, and why these ideas are applicable. Examine the set of readings provided here, let them stimulate your thinking, and, in the process, learn something new. You'll find that learning 一 and especially critical thinking 一 can be both fun and addictive! Notes 1. See, for example, Barbara Ettore, “What's the Next Business Buzzword?" Management Review, 1997, 86:8, 33-35; "Business Fads: What's In—and Out," Business Week, January 20, 1986; w. w. Armstrong, "The Boss Has Read Another New Book!" Management Review, June 1994, 83:6,61-64. 2. Frank Freeman, "Books That Mean Business: The Management Best Sellers," Academy of Management Review, 1985, 10, 345-35〇, 3. See, for example, a report on executive reading preferences by Marilyn Wellemeyer in "Books Bosses Read," Fortune, April 27, 1987. 4. See John w. Newstrom and Jon L. Pierce, "An Analytic Framework for Assessing Popular Business Books," Journal of Management Development, 1993, 12:4, 20-28. READING Reflections on the Best Sellers and a Cautionary Note Jon L. Pierce and John W. Newstrom, with Larry L. Cummings, Brad Jackson, and Anne Cummings Dr. Larry L. Cummings was the Carlson Professor of Management in the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. He previously taught at Columbia University, Indiana University, the University of British Columbia, the University of Wisconsin in Madison, and Northwestern University. Dr. Cummings published more than 80 journal articles and 16 books. He served as the editor of the Academy of Management Journal, as a member of the Academy’s Board of Governors, and as president of the same association. Dr. Cummings was a consultant for many corporations, including Dow Chemical, Cummins Engine, Eli Lilly, Prudential, Samsonite, Touche-Ross, and Moore Business Forms. Professor Brad Jackson is the Fletcher Building Education Trust Chair and Codirector of the New Zealand Leadership Institute at The University of Auckland Business School. Brad has spoken to academic and business audiences throughout the world and has published five books— Management Gurus and Management Fashions, The Hero Manager, Organisational Behaviour in New Zealand, A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book About Studying Leadership, and Demystifying Business Celebrity. He has edited the Sage Handbook of Leadership, and Major Works in Leadership. He is Vice-Chair of the International Leadership Association. Dr. Anne Cummings taught General Management, Organizational Behavior, Teams, Negotiations, and Leadership for undergraduate, M.B.A., Ph.D., and Executive Education audiences at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, and subsequently served on the Management Studies faculty at the University of Minnesota Duluth. Dr. Cummings won the David W. Hauck teaching award at Wharton in recognition of her outstanding ability to lead, stimulate, and challenge students. She holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior from the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, and her research has appeared in the Academy of Management Journal, Journal of Applied Psychology, California Management Review, and Leadership Quarterly. This closing section provides our reflections upon management (both the body of knowledge and its practice), as well as upon the wave of management books that has almost become an institutionalized part of the popular press. We hope it will provide some helpful perspectives and point you in some new directions. One of the world’s premier management gurus, the late Peter F. Drucker, suggested that managing is a “liberal art. It is “liberal” because it deals not only with fundamental knowledge but also self-knowledge, wisdom, and leadership; it is an "art” because it is also concerned with practice and application. According to Drucker, “managers draw on all the knowledge and insights of the humanities and the social sciences 一 on 12 Reading Two ♦ Reflections on the Best Sellers and a Cautionary Note psychology and philosophy, on economics and history, on ethics 一 as well as on the physical sciences.”† Building on this, we note that management can be defined as the skillful application of a body of knowledge to a particular organizational situation. This definition suggests that management is an art form as well as a science. That is, there is a body of knowledge that has to be applied with the fine touch and instinctive sense of the master artist. Peter Drucker reminds us that the fundamental task of management is to “ make people capable of joint performance through common goals, common values, the right structure, and the training and development they need to perform and to respond to change” (p. 4). Consequently, execution of the management role and performance of the managerial functions are more complex than the simple application of a few management concepts. The development of effective management, therefore, requires the development of an in-depth understanding of organizational and management concepts, careful sensitivity to individuals and groups, and the capacity to grasp when and how to apply this knowledge. The organizational arena presents today’s manager with a number of challenges. The past few decades have been marked by a rapid growth of knowledge about organizations and management systems. As a consequence of this growth in management information, we strongly believe that it is important for today’s manager to engage in lifelong learning by continually remaining a student of management. It is also clear to us that our understanding of organizations and management systems is still in the early stages of development. That is, there remain many unanswered questions that pertain to the effective management of organizations. Many observers of the perils facing today’s organizations have charged that the crises facing American organizations today are largely a function of “bad management” 一 the failure, in large part, to recognize that management is about human beings. It is the ability, according to Drucker, ““to make people capable of joint performance, [and] to make their strengths effective and their weaknesses irrelevant. This is what organization is all about, and it is the reason that management is the critical, determining force” (p. 10). Similarly, Tom Peters and Bob Waterman have observed that the growth of our society during the twentieth century was so rapid that almost any management approach appeared to work and work well. The real test of effective management systems did not appear until recent decades, when competitive, economic, political, and social pressures created a form of environmental turbulence that pushed existing managerial tactics beyond their limits. Not only are students of management challenged to learn about effective management principles, but are also confronted with the need to develop the skills and intuitive sense to apply that management knowledge. This approach is totally consistent with the concept of evidence-based management, as introduced by Pfefïer and Sutton in Part 16, Reading 3. Fortunately, there are many organizations in our society from which they can learn, and there is a wealth of knowledge that has been created that focuses on effective organizational management. There are at least two literatures that provide rich opportunities for regular reading. First, there is the traditional management literature found in management and organization textbooks and academic journals (e.g., Academy of Management Journal, Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Harvard Business Review, Organizational Dynamics, Managerial Psychology, Research in Organizational Behavior, and California Management Review). Second, the past few decades have seen the emergence of a nontraditional management literature written by management gurus, management practitioners, and management consultants who describe their organizational experiences and provide a number of other management themes. Knowledge about effective and ineffective management systems can be gleaned by listening to the management scholar, philosopher, and practitioner. Because not all that is published in the academic journals or in the popular press meets combined tests of scientific rigor and practicality, it is important that motivated readers immerse themselves in both of these †Page references are to Peter F. Drucker, “Management as a Social Function and Liberal Art, The Essential Drucker: The Best of Sixty Years of Peter Drucker's Essential Writings on Management. Harper Business, 2003. 13 14 Part One ♦ Introduction literatures. Yet, neither source should be approached and subsequently consumed without engaging in critical thinking. CRITICAL THINKING AND CAUTIOUS CONSUMPTION We believe that the ideas promoted in these best sellers should not be integrated blindly into any organization. Each should be subjected to careful scrutiny in order to identify its inherent strengths and weaknesses; each should be examined within the context of the unique organizational setting in which it may be implemented; and modifications and fine-tuning of the technique may be required in order to tailor it to a specific organizational setting and management philosophy. In addition, we strongly encourage juxtaposing the concepts, ideas, and management practices presented in these books with the scientific management literature. To what extent have these “popular press ideas been subjected to investigation following the canons of the scientific method? Have they been supported? Are they endorsed by other respected management philosophers and practitioners? If these ideas or similar ones have not been rigorously examined scientifically, it would be prudent to ask the important question “Why not?” If these ideas have not been endorsed by others, we should once again raise the question “Why not?” before blindly entering them into our storehouse of knowledge and “bag of management practices.” Finally, the process that is used to implement the management technique may be as important to its success as the technique itself, as good ideas (techniques, programs) may still fail if the processes employed to implement them are seriously flawed. This is an era of an information—knowledge explosion. We would like to remind consumers of information of the relevance of the saying caveat emptor (let the buyer beware) from the product domain, because there are both good and questionable informational products on the best-seller market. Fortunately, advisory services such as Consumer Reports exist to advise us on the consumption of consumer goods. There is, however, no similar guide for our consumption of information in the popular management press. Just because a book has been published or even become a best seller does not mean that the information contained therein is worthy of direct consumption. It may be a best seller because it presents an optimistic message, it is enjoyable reading, it contains simple solutions that appeal to those searching for easy answers, the author is a recognized figure, or it has been successfully marketed to the public. The information in all management literature should be approached with caution; it should be examined and questioned. We suggest that a more appropriate guide for readers might be caveat lector, sapeat lector (which loosely translates to “Let the reader beware, but first let the reader be informed”). The pop-management literature should not be substituted for more scientific-based knowledge about effective management. In addition, this knowledge should be compared and contrasted with what we know about organizations and management systems from other sources—the opinions of other experts, the academic management literature, and our own prior organizational experiences. We invite you to question this best-seller literature. In the process, there are many questions that should be asked. For example, What are the author’s credentials, and are they relevant to the book? Has the author remained an objective observer of the reported events? Why did the author write this book? What kind of information is being presented (e.g., opinion, values, facts)? Does this information make sense when it is placed into previously developed theories? Could I take this information and apply it to another situation at a different point in time and in a different place, or was it unique to the author’s experience? These and similar questions should be part of the information screening process. INTERVIEWS WITH THREE ORGANIZATIONAL SCHOLARS As we became increasingly familiar with the best sellers through our roles as editors, we began asking a number of questions about this type of literature. We then sought and talked with three distinguished management scholars—Professors L. L. Cummings, Brad Jackson, and Anne Cummings. Following are excerpts from those Reading Two ♦ Reflections on the Best Sellers and a Cautionary Note interviews. Exploring the Contributions of Best Sellers We have witnessed an explosion in the number and type of books that have been written on management and organizations for the trade market. Many of these books have found themselves on various “best-seller lists. What, in your opinion, has been the impact of these publications? What is the nature of their contribution? LARRY CUMMINGS’S PERSPECTIVE Quite frankly, I think these books have made a number of subtle contributions, most of which have not been labeled or identified by either the business press or the academic press. In addition, many of their contributions have been inappropriately or inaccurately labeled. Permit me to elaborate. I think it is generally true that a number of these very popular “best-seller list” books, as you put it, have been thought to be reasonably accurate translations or interpretations of successful organizational practice. Although this is not the way that these books have been reviewed in the academic press, my interactions with managers, business practitioners, and M.B.A. students reveal that many of these books are viewed as describing organizational structure, practices, and cultures that are thought to contribute to excellence. On the other hand, when I evaluate the books myself and when I pay careful attention to the reviews by respected, well-trained, balanced academicians, it is my opinion that these books offer very little, if anything, in the way of generalizable knowledge about successful organizational practice. As organizational case studies, they are the most dangerous of the lot, in that the data (information) presented has not been systematically, carefully, and cautiously collected and interpreted. Of course, that criticism is common for case studies. Cases were never meant to be contributions to scientific knowledge. Even the best ones are primarily pedagogical aids, or the basis for subsequent theory construction. The reason I describe the cases presented in books like In Search of Excellence as frequently among the most dangerous is because they are so well done (i.e., in a marketing and journalistic sense), and therefore, they are easily read and so believable. They are likely to influence the naive, those who consume them without critically evaluating their content. They epitomize the glamour and the action orientation, and even the machoism of American management practice; that is, they represent the epitome of competition, control, and order as dominant interpersonal and organizational values. Rather, I think the contributions of these books, in general, have been to provide an apology, a rationale, or a positioning, if you like, of American management as something that is not just on the defensive with regard to other world competitors. Instead, they have highlighted American management as having many good things to offer: a sense of spirit, a sense of identification, and a sense of clear caricature. This has served to fill a very important need. In American management thought there has emerged a lack of self-confidence and a lack of belief that what we are doing is proactive, effective, and correct. From this perspective, these books have served a useful role in trying to present an upbeat, optimistic characterization. BRAD JACKSON’S PERSPECTIVE It is very difficult to assess the true nature of the impact that the best sellers have on management practice. We might infer from the huge number of books that are sold each year that their impact might be quite substantial. Corporations and consulting firms purchase many business best sellers on a bulk basis. It is difficult to ascertain how many of these are actually distributed and received. The next question to consider, of course, is the extent to which these books are actually read. Anecdotal evidence (as well as personal experience!) suggests that, even with the best intentions, most readers manage to peruse the book jacket, the testimonials, the preface, and, at best, the introductory chapter. Few find the time to read the book’s entire contents. 15 16 Part One ♦ Introduction Most crucially, however, we should try to understand the nature of the impact that the reading of a best seller, even if it is very partial, has on how the individual manager perceives the world and how he or she acts on that world as a result of being exposed to the ideas expressed in this genre of books. This is a task that is fraught with difficulty, as managers are exposed to so many different influences and are shaped and constrained by a wide range of organizational environments. In my book, Management Gurus and Management Fashions (Jackson, 2001), I suggest that business best sellers not only make an intellectual contribution, but also provide quite important psychological and emotional support to managers. It is no accident that we can observe the swelling of the personal growth section of the business book section during times of widespread turbulence. During the 1990s, organizations across all sectors embraced new management ideas (management fashions) that were promoted by management gurus in business best sellers. Organizational improvement programs such as total quality management, business process reengineering, the balanced scorecard, and knowledge management were seized upon as the panacea for organizations desperate to retain their competitive edge or merely survive. Vestiges of these and older programs can still be traced in the language, systems, and structures of these organizations, but their influence and attention are well past their peak. We have very little to go on in terms of understanding how these management fashions are adapted and institutionalized, but a few studies have shown that these ideas tend to be only selectively adopted or they are reworked or even actively resisted by managers and employees. The bottom line is that it is very difficult to accurately trace the impact of best sellers. However, we should be prepared to accept that the final impact is likely to be quite different than what the best-selling author originally intended! ANNE CUMMINGS’S PERSPECTIVE These best-selling business books have offered my teaching a variety of important contributions: • They offer powerful corporate examples that I use for illustrating conceptual points in class. I often find the examples of what didn’t work (and the ensuing discussion about why) as useful (if not more useful!) than the examples of what did work. • They update me on the newest terminology and techniques that managers are reading about, which helps me to communicate efficiently and effectively with them, using their vocabulary. • They stimulate interesting conversations with Executive Education participants, who often question the value of the latest fads and want to explore how these new ideas compare to their managerial experience and to the conceptual foundations about management that they learned a decade earlier. • Some of the books offer basic frameworks for viewing problems and issues, and this encourages students to begin thinking conceptually. I can then nudge students toward thinking further about cause-effect relationships, contingencies, and the utility of academic research. • Some of the books offer important insights into environmental trends, shifting managerial pressures, and even new ways of thinking about things 一 sometimes long before academics explore these areas. Possible Concerns About Best Sellers In addition to a large volume of sales, surveys reveal that many of these books have been purchased and presumably read by those who are managing today’s organizations. Does this trouble you? More specifically, are there any concerns that you have, given the extreme popularity of these types of books? I am of two minds with regard to this question. First, I think that the sales of these books are not an accurate reflection of the degree, the extent, or the carefulness with which they have been read. Nor do I believe that the sales volumes tell us anything about the pervasiveness of their impact. Like many popular items (fads), many of these books have been purchased for desktop dressing. In many cases, LARRY CUMMINGS’S PERSPECTIVE Reading Two ♦ Reflections on the Best Sellers and a Cautionary Note the preface, the introduction, and the conclusion (maybe the summary on the dust jacket) have been read such that the essence of the book is picked up, and it can become a part of managerial and social conversation. Obviously, this characterization does not accurately describe everyone in significant positions of management who has purchased these books. There are many managers who make sincere attempts to follow the management literature thoroughly and to evaluate it critically. I think that most of the people with whom I come in contact in management circles, both in training for management and in actual management positions, who have carefully read the books are not deceived by them. They are able to put them in the perspective of representations or characterizations of a fairly dramatic sort. As a consequence, I am not too concerned about the books being overly persuasive in some dangerous, Machiavellian, or subterranean sense. On the other hand, I do have a concern of a different nature regarding these books. That concern focuses upon the possibility that the experiences they describe will be taken as legitimate bases or legitimate directions for the study of management processes. These books represent discourse by the method of emphasizing the extremes, in particular the extremes of success. I think a much more fruitful approach to studying and developing prescriptions for management thought and management action is to use the method of differences rather than the method of extremes. The method of differences would require us to study the conditions that gave rise to success at Chrysler, or McDonald’s, or which currently gives rise to success at Merck or any of the other best-managed companies. However, through this method we would also contrast these companies with firms in the same industries that are not as successful. The method of contrast (differences) is likely to lead to empirical results that are much less dramatic, much less exciting, much less subject to journalistic account (i.e., they’re likely to be more boring to read), but it is much more likely to lead to observations that are more generalizable across managerial situations, as well as being generative in terms of ideas for further management research. Thus, the issue is based on the fundamental method that underlies these characterizations. My concern is not only from a methodological perspective. It also centers on our ethical and professional obligations to make sure that the knowledge we transmit does not lead people to overgeneralize. Rather, it should provide them with information that is diagnostic rather than purely prescriptive. The method of extremes does not lead to a diagnostic frame of mind. It does not lead to a frame of mind that questions why something happened, under what conditions it happened, or under what conditions it would not happen. The method of differences is much more likely to lead to the discovery of the conditional nature of knowledge and the conditional nature of prescriptions. I tend to be less concerned about the large volume of business best sellers than a lot of my academic colleagues. While I wish that there were bigger public appetites for more academically oriented management books, I am generally encouraged by the widespread interest in business and management. It’s important for managers to take an interest in what is going on beyond their immediate work environment and to ask questions about why things are being done in a certain way and what could be done differently. Best sellers typically challenge the status quo in provocative and dramatic ways that readily engage managers’ attentions. Subsequently, many managers wish to learn more and sign up for some form of formal management education. It is in this forum that they can become exposed to alternative and more rigorously researched accounts of management theory and practice that challenge some of the assumptions made in the best sellers. I have found that encouraging managers to take a more critical reading of the business best sellers can be highly instructive for both them and me, especially when they are presented alongside academically oriented texts, which they find to be slightly less accessible, but ultimately more rewarding. BRAD JACKSON’S PERSPECTIVE My greatest concern with these books is that many readers do not have the time, motivation, or managerial experience to appropriately apply the contents. Unfortunately, a few students seem to be mostly interested in “speaking the language” with bravado just to demonstrate how up-to-date they ANNE CUMMINGS’S PERSPECTIVE 17 18 Part One ♦ Introduction are. Others seem to want to simply imitate the successful examples that they have read about, as though these reports of alleged best practices represent a “cookbook” approach that can be easily applied elsewhere. Most managers consider their time an extremely valuable resource and consider this reading a “luxury”； they tell me they therefore approach these readings looking for ““take-aways” from each one—short lists of guiding principles, practical procedures they can implement immediately, or a simple diagram or model to organize a project or change they are leading. All students of management can benefit from remembering that the process of building solid theories and best practices from isolated case examples (i.e., inductive learning) is a complex one； some discipline and patience are required to avoid premature generalizing before valid evidence is available and well understood. The challenge is for readers to expend some real effort and apply critical thinking to these products—to analyze when and why the practices might be successful. Demanding conversations with colleagues, mentors, and competitors； comparing apparent discrepancies； and asking tough “why” and “how” questions are all useful techniques to achieve this discipline. Recent Changes in Best Sellers The modern era of business best-seller popularity now spans several decades. Have you witnessed any changes or evolution in the nature of these best-seller books during this time? Looking back, I characterize the 1990s as the “guru decade.” This was the era in which a few highly influential management gurus such as Michael Hammer, Tom Peters, Michael Porter, Peter Senge, and Stephen Covey reigned supreme among the best sellers. Their larger-than-life presences helped to spawn a few very powerful management ideas that drove a lot of conventional management thinking in North America and beyond. I do not see the same concentration of interest in either management gurus or management fashions in the current business book market. Instead I see a lot of niche-based ideas that are being promoted by specific consulting firms. None of these seem to have had the same pervasive influence that the gurus previously held. On the other hand, I see a lot of interest in biographical accounts of what I call “hero managers” such as Jack Welch, Richard Branson, and Lou Gerstner. Most of these are inspirational selfcelebratory accounts, but, of course, there has also been a lot more interest in exposing some of the darker sides of corporate life in the wake of the Enron and other corporate scandals. BRAD JACKSON’S PERSPECTIVE JOHN NEWSTROM’S PERSPECTIVE I have closely monitored the field of business best sellers for over thirty years. I have read, analyzed, and discussed many books in considerable detail while also “keeping my finger on the pulse” by more casual observation of hundreds of other business and management books. Although it may be unfair to suggest that significant trends have occurred during this period, it is wholly reasonable to conclude that the field of best sellers has witnessed several interesting phenomena. I’ll briefly proffer those here: • There has been an unending publication of what I reíềr to as "one-hour" books in management. These are books that, because of their brevity (perhaps 100 pages), simplistic writing style (often presented in the form of fables), and page layout (large print, wide margins, and frequently double-spaced text) can usually be read from cover to cover in a very minimal length of time (perhaps the length of a typical airplane flight). This has made them highly appealing to a readership that is often reluctant to devote dozens of hours to immersing themselves in dense material while juggling many other responsibilities. • There have been many releases (no pun intended) of what I critically refer to as "re-books.” At the risk of reiterating a previously expressed theme of “old wine in new bottles,” I believe that considerable numbers of the books appearing over the years have little new to offer; they simply reiterate or regurgitate (i.e., restate, rehash, rephrase, retell, reconfirm, review) the same themes—and occasionally the same stories—as previous books have done. Note, however, that I am less critical of new books that legitimately seek to modify and extend previous knowledge. Constructive re-books, then, are often Reading Two ♦ Reflections on the Best Sellers and a Cautionary Note characterized by not only reminding and reinforcing the earlier conclusions of other authors but also refining, revising, or reimagining the material to push the state of the art forward a bit. • Another trend I've witnessed is the existence of business books proclaiming to identify so-called “immutable” laws. I urge caution to any reader of these titles, challenging them to question whether it is truly likely that a series of 6, 10, or 21 new immutable (absolute, indisputable, unassailable) principles of management were recently discovered by these management evangelists. • A closely related genre of business best sellers falls into the category of "Leadership Secrets of” (e.g., Sitting Bull, Abraham Lincoln, Billy Graham, Colin Powell, Hillary Clinton, Santa Claus, or the Mafia). Book authors and publishers seem to believe that if they attach almost any source reference to “Leadership Secrets” that people will truly believe it has instant credibility. These historical reconstructions attempt to identify golden nuggets of wisdom, much as prospectors did when sifting through the tailings from old gold mines—but rarely with rich results. • One modest trend has been the shift from near-exclusive laudatory books about corporate executives (often autobiographical) to much more critical (and sometimes scathing) documentations of managerial and organizational weaknesses, failures, and downfalls. The former is best illustrated by the books lacocca, Jack Welch on Leadership, and General Norman SchwartzkopFs It Doesn't Take a Hero; recent years have seen a broad array of exposés (e.g., BPs Tony Hayward and the Failure of Leadership, Derailed: Five Lessons Learned from Catastrophic Failures of Leadership, Chainsaw: The Notorious Career of Al Dunlap). The positive takeaway from this trend is that many books are now becoming much more honest and candid about both the strengths and weaknesses of our leaders and organizations. • One of the more encouraging trends, on the other hand, has been the increasingly common appearance of books prepared by authors with substantive research credentials or well- established respect for their thought processes. These authors (such as Edward Lawler, Richard Hackman, and Fred Luthans) typically have conducted in-depth reviews of the extant literature as well as gathered original research information as the bases for solid conclusions. • One thing that clearly has not changed substantially across thirty years is the widespread and seemingly insatiable hunger (or unquenchable thirst) on the part of consumers for guidance, insight, wisdom, handholding, and simplistic prescriptions for success. In that sense, the market hasn’t seemed to change much since Shepherd Mead first published How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying in 1952. Words of Advice Do you have any insights or reflections or words of advice to offer readers of business best sellers? BRAD JACKSON’S PERSPECTIVE I like to share the advice that Micklethwait and Wooldridge (The Witch Doctors, 1996) give at the end of their excellent exposé on the management theory industry. They argue that because management theory is comparatively immature and underdeveloped, it is vital that managers become selective and critical consumers of the products and services offered by the management theory industry. In particular, they suggest that managers should bear in mind the following advice when making boo...
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