Understanding Organizational Evolution: Its Impact on Management and Performance

(Hardback)

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Description

As the size and complexity of a company change in the course of its evolution, it experiences predictable stages of growth. During these stages, a company discovers that what worked in the past no longer works. At such times, managers have to juggle organizational evolution as they reinvent new ways of structuring the company. Typically, tension develops as one variable is stressed at the expense of the others. Managers need to know how to delegate decision making without abdicating overall control of the organization. The model developed here derives from the authors' understanding of how successful firms have managed these tensions.

Reviews

"Understanding Organizational Evolution has a winning combination of serious academic approach and readability that is necessary for the practical application of innovative techniques. More than a 'how to' manual, this book also explains 'why' and wraps it all neatly together with a written style that is both informative and engaging. The best account I have read so far of performance management, this book will appeal to reflective practitioners everywhere, whether they be managers, consultants or scholars."-Jonathan Winterton Director of Research and Professor of Human Resource Development Groupe ESC Toulouse (Toulouse Business School), France
"Understanding Organizational Evolution is a unique combination of practical management advice and deep insight into the underlying reasons for organizational problems. Fletcher and Taplin provide concrete lessons and symptoms of the need for organizational change from their evolutionary model of organizations that help managers understand exactly what particular problems mean and how to address them. What is more, their inclusion of a history of teamwork's success and failures sheds insight and explanation that is all too rare in practical management books. Their use of numerous specific cases and examples, and emphasis on using information technology for performance management make this book ideal for MBA and Executive Education courses in management and leadership."-Jone L. Pearce Professor of Management University of California, Irvine
"Without having read this book, I would not have grasped the big picture; lacking an understanding of the concepts expressed herein, I would have focused on my MBO's and the tasks at hand. Now, I believe I understand centralization and decentralization, how to push decision making down to the lowest level, and how not to get caught up in the data. I also learned how to put data in the form of information applied against the results I'm getting or not getting! These efficiencies have given me the ability to operate in a large corporate environment with all of the agility and values of a small business."-John Petas Senior Vice President Automobile Service Operations American Honda Motor Co., Inc.

Author Bio

DOUGLAS SCOTT FLETCHER is Principle and Senior Consultant at Performex in Newport Beach, California. IAN M. TAPLIN is Professor of Sociology, Management, and International Studies at Wake Forest University