The Organizational Complex PDF Download

Author: Reinhold Martin
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262633264
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 325

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Book Description
A historical and theoretical analysis of corporate architecture in the United States after the Second World War. The Organizational Complex is a historical and theoretical analysis of corporate architecture in the United States after the Second World War. Its title refers to the aesthetic and technological extension of the military-industrial complex, in which architecture, computers, and corporations formed a network of objects, images, and discourses that realigned social relations and transformed the postwar landscape. In-depth case studies of architect Eero Saarinen's work for General Motors, IBM, and Bell Laboratories and analyses of office buildings designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill trace the emergence of a systems-based model of organization in architecture, in which the modular curtain wall acts as both an organizational device and a carrier of the corporate image. Such an image—of the corporation as a flexible, integrated system—is seen to correspond with a "humanization" of corporate life, as corporations decentralize both spatially and administratively. Parallel analyses follow the assimilation of cybernetics into aesthetics in the writings of artist and visual theorist Gyorgy Kepes, as art merges with techno-science in the service of a dynamic new "pattern-seeing." Image and system thus converge in the organizational complex, while top-down power dissolves into networked, pattern-based control. Architecture, as one among many media technologies, supplies the patterns—images of organic integration designed to regulate new and unstable human-machine assemblages.

Author: Haridimos Tsoukas
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199275572
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 427

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Book Description
"In this book Haridimos Tsoukas examines the nature of knowledge in organizations, and how individuals and scholars approach the concept of knowledge"--Provided by publisher.

Author: Richard Beckhard
Publisher: Addison Wesley Publishing Company
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 136

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Book Description
USA. Monograph investigating methodologys for managing complex changes within organization development - deals with transition management, and examines management techniques for choosing an intervention strategy and for carrying out an evaluation plan.

Author: INCITE!
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 0822373009
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
A trillion-dollar industry, the US non-profit sector is one of the world's largest economies. From art museums and university hospitals to think tanks and church charities, over 1.5 million organizations of staggering diversity share the tax-exempt 501(c)(3) designation, if little else. Many social justice organizations have joined this world, often blunting political goals to satisfy government and foundation mandates. But even as funding shrinks, many activists often find it difficult to imagine movement-building outside the non-profit model. The Revolution Will Not Be Funded gathers essays by radical activists, educators, and non-profit staff from around the globe who critically rethink the long-term consequences of what they call the "non-profit industrial complex." Drawing on their own experiences, the contributors track the history of non-profits and provide strategies to transform and work outside them. Urgent and visionary, The Revolution Will Not Be Funded presents a biting critique of the quietly devastating role the non-profit industrial complex plays in managing dissent. Contributors. Christine E. Ahn, Robert L. Allen, Alisa Bierria, Nicole Burrowes, Communities Against Rape and Abuse (CARA), William Cordery, Morgan Cousins, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Stephanie Guilloud, Adjoa Florência Jones de Almeida, Tiffany Lethabo King, Paul Kivel, Soniya Munshi, Ewuare Osayande, Amara H. Pérez, Project South: Institute for the Elimination of Poverty and Genocide, Dylan Rodríguez, Paula X. Rojas, Ana Clarissa Rojas Durazo, Sisters in Action for Power, Andrea Smith, Eric Tang, Madonna Thunder Hawk, Ije Ude, Craig Willse

Author: Gareth Morgan
Publisher: SAGE Publications
ISBN: 1506354726
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 522

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Book Description
Since its first publication over twenty years ago, Images of Organization has become a classic in the canon of management literature. The book is based on a very simple premise—that all theories of organization and management are based on implicit images or metaphors that stretch our imagination in a way that can create powerful insights, but at the risk of distortion. Gareth Morgan provides a rich and comprehensive resource for exploring the complexity of modern organizations internationally, translating leading-edge theory into leading-edge practice.

Author: J. A. Scott Kelso
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 9780262611312
Category : Behavior
Languages : en
Pages : 368

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Book Description
foreword by Hermann Haken For the past twenty years Scott Kelso's research has focused on extending the physical concepts of self- organization and the mathematical tools of nonlinear dynamics to understand how human beings (and human brains) perceive, intend, learn, control, and coordinate complex behaviors. In this book Kelso proposes a new, general framework within which to connect brain, mind, and behavior.Kelso's prescription for mental life breaks dramatically with the classical computational approach that is still the operative framework for many newer psychological and neurophysiological studies. His core thesis is that the creation and evolution of patterned behavior at all levels--from neurons to mind--is governed by the generic processes of self-organization. Both human brain and behavior are shown to exhibit features of pattern-forming dynamical systems, including multistability, abrupt phase transitions, crises, and intermittency. Dynamic Patterns brings together different aspects of this approach to the study of human behavior, using simple experimental examples and illustrations to convey essential concepts, strategies, and methods, with a minimum of mathematics. Kelso begins with a general account of dynamic pattern formation. He then takes up behavior, focusing initially on identifying pattern-forming instabilities in human sensorimotor coordination. Moving back and forth between theory and experiment, he establishes the notion that the same pattern-forming mechanisms apply regardless of the component parts involved (parts of the body, parts of the nervous system, parts of society) and the medium through which the parts are coupled. Finally, employing the latest techniques to observe spatiotemporal patterns of brain activity, Kelso shows that the human brain is fundamentally a pattern forming dynamical system, poised on the brink of instability. Self-organization thus underlies the cooperative action of neurons that produces human behavior in all its forms.

Author: Gen. Stanley McChrystal
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0698178513
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
From the New York Times bestselling author of My Share of the Task and Leaders, a manual for leaders looking to make their teams more adaptable, agile, and unified in the midst of change. When General Stanley McChrystal took command of the Joint Special Operations Task Force in 2004, he quickly realized that conventional military tactics were failing. Al Qaeda in Iraq was a decentralized network that could move quickly, strike ruthlessly, then seemingly vanish into the local population. The allied forces had a huge advantage in numbers, equipment, and training—but none of that seemed to matter. To defeat Al Qaeda, they would have to combine the power of the world’s mightiest military with the agility of the world’s most fearsome terrorist network. They would have to become a "team of teams"—faster, flatter, and more flexible than ever. In Team of Teams, McChrystal and his colleagues show how the challenges they faced in Iraq can be rel­evant to countless businesses, nonprofits, and or­ganizations today. In periods of unprecedented crisis, leaders need practical management practices that can scale to thousands of people—and fast. By giving small groups the freedom to experiment and share what they learn across the entire organiza­tion, teams can respond more quickly, communicate more freely, and make better and faster decisions. Drawing on compelling examples—from NASA to hospital emergency rooms—Team of Teams makes the case for merging the power of a large corporation with the agility of a small team to transform any organization.

Author: Aaron Dignan
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0525536213
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 304

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Book Description
“This is the management book of the year. Clear, powerful and urgent, it's a must read for anyone who cares about where they work and how they work.” —Seth Godin, author of This is Marketing “This book is a breath of fresh air. Read it now, and make sure your boss does too.” —Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Give and Take, Originals, and Option B with Sheryl Sandberg When fast-scaling startups and global organizations get stuck, they call Aaron Dignan. In this book, he reveals his proven approach for eliminating red tape, dissolving bureaucracy, and doing the best work of your life. He’s found that nearly everyone, from Wall Street to Silicon Valley, points to the same frustrations: lack of trust, bottlenecks in decision making, siloed functions and teams, meeting and email overload, tiresome budgeting, short-term thinking, and more. Is there any hope for a solution? Haven’t countless business gurus promised the answer, yet changed almost nothing about the way we work? That’s because we fail to recognize that organizations aren’t machines to be predicted and controlled. They’re complex human systems full of potential waiting to be released. Dignan says you can’t fix a team, department, or organization by tinkering around the edges. Over the years, he has helped his clients completely reinvent their operating systems—the fundamental principles and practices that shape their culture—with extraordinary success. Imagine a bank that abandoned traditional budgeting, only to outperform its competition for decades. An appliance manufacturer that divided itself into 2,000 autonomous teams, resulting not in chaos but rapid growth. A healthcare provider with an HQ of just 50 people supporting over 14,000 people in the field—that is named the “best place to work” year after year. And even a team that saved $3 million per year by cancelling one monthly meeting. Their stories may sound improbable, but in Brave New Work you’ll learn exactly how they and other organizations are inventing a smarter, healthier, and more effective way to work. Not through top down mandates, but through a groundswell of autonomy, trust, and transparency. Whether you lead a team of ten or ten thousand, improving your operating system is the single most powerful thing you can do. The only question is, are you ready?

Author: Giovanna D'Alessio
Publisher: Asterys
ISBN: 9788890957642
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
In the last few decades, leaders have been witnessing increasing complexity and an exponential rate of change from the outside and they have experienced a number of internal challenges hindering the performance of their organizations: among these, we find a silo mentality, rigidity, stultifying bureaucracy, an excess of systems and processes, and an outdated command & control management style. These challenges are common to all corporations, across geography, industries and size. We have considered how corporations have tried to solve their organizational issues. In the last 30 years we have seen a number of fancy corporate initiatives, including Total Quality programs, moving on to a matrix structure, Six Sigma interventions, Lean initiatives, leadership development programs, moving on to flatter organizations and more recently Smart Working. The results of these initiatives generally fall far short of reaching their full potential and after a few years the company is ready to move on to its next transformation effort. The reason is that all these initiatives are implemented within the same mindset that created the problems in the first place. Furthermore, these approaches are driven by a mechanistic approach to problem-solving: they focus on the single broken or malfunctioning part of the organization, without considering the interrelation and dynamics among the various parts and without addressing the underlying cause of the problem. Hierarchical structures and systems generate and reinforce those same behaviors that the organization would like to dismantle. Even in flat pyramids, the mere presence of subordination (a few leaders who can make decisions which the rest of the employees are expected to execute) and the presence of strict control mechanisms create typical dysfunctional dynamics and behaviors that operate on a system level, and are generally unacknowledged. The idea that the structure and the systems of an organization shape people's behavior is not new. Chris Argyris, Professor Emeritus at Harvard Business School, was among the first to argue that a rigid hierarchical structure paves the way for a shift in behavior from active toward passive, from self-management toward dependency, from equal to subordinate. Other researchers suggest that hierarchy causes conservatism, conformity, domination of individuals, low output, low morale and decreased innovation. Companies cannot expect to overcome their challenges without questioning the whole idea of subordination. Our research shows that a good portion of both top executives and employees desire a radical change in the way the organizations work: they imagine a purpose-driven business, in which self-organizing teams, decentralized decision-making based on values and principles, and transparency are the main keys to becoming a successful organization. We propose a radical shift to a hierarchy-free organization. AEquacy is a human-centered organizational design and operating system that changes the paradigm of the traditional, hierarchical organization, overcoming its limits and paving the way to greater innovation, collaboration and performance. AEquacy can be envisioned as a radial, equalitarian structure of self-organizing, peer-coordinated teams. Different pre-defined types of teams and specific roles within each team keep the system in balance while unleashing the true potential of teams and individuals. In an aequal organization people can perform at their best because they have total control over their work, clarity about the organizational direction and access to all information to make the best decisions. The book presents: - AEquacy, a hierarchy-free, peer-coordinated, radial structure of self-organizing teams; - The AEquacy framework of operating principles; - The AEquacy implementation model.

Author: Jeroen van Bree
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137351489
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 152

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Book Description
There is a widening gap between the current organizational reality and the tools and methods available to managers for addressing its challenges. Game Based Organization Design shows that one of the ways to bridge this gap is to introduce insights and approaches from video game design into the design of organizational systems.