Boris Vladimirovich Gnedenko (Mimeo series) [Unknown Binding]

Nozer D Singpurwalla (Author)

Book Description

Series: Mimeo series | Publication Date: 1991

The post-industrial age has brought with it a new work environment, complete with new forms of organization and patterns of behavior. It has also created new anxieties for workers and for organizations. In this revealing study, Larry Hirschhorn looks at the social defenses organizations develop to cope with change. Using extended case studies and examples from offices, factories, and social services, he describes why these defenses exist, how they operate, and how they can be reshaped to enhance people's work experience.Unlike traditional studies of the workplace which have tended to focus only on the firm's conscious values, attitudes and norms, "The Workplace Within weaves together psychoanalytic studies, theories of organizations as sociotechnical settings, and conceptions of post-industrial society to uncover the hidden, irrational, and unconscious mechanisms that pattern organizational behavior. It challenges the traditional view that economics or the "bottom line" is the sole, or even the primary, motivating force behind the behavior of work organizations.Hirschhorn examines three major forms of social defense: the basic assumption, the covert coalition, and the organizational ritual. Each is a group behavior that in some way helps contain the anxiety of working; yet each is self-limiting, or even self-defeating. He concludes that the post-industrial work system is double-edged. In supervising total systems of production and working increasingly across departments and units, people are brought closer to the product of their work, while experiencing increased anxiety. Hirschhorn describes the "reparative organization" as one solution to this dilemma; however, he asserts that theultimate resolution lies outside the organization and in the society's culture of work, demanding a reconstruction of our political economy.Larry Hirschhorn is principal and senior research manager at the Wharton Center for Applied Research, and author of "Beyond Mechanization (MIT Press paperback). "The Workplace Within was shaped partly by the author's extensive consulting experience and is unique in integrating both theory and practice to illuminate organizational behaviors. The book is included in the series Organization Studies, edited by John Van Maanen.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The Workplace Within is a deeply ambitious book. It addresses practical human problems in organizations, drawing on solid case data, and at the same time it raises questions at a broad philosophical and policy level about good organizations, how to go beyond social defenses, and the scope of changes required in our political economy to build developmental work cultures... a major contribution toward understanding the felt experience of work in post industrial society... most importantly it represents a methodological breakthrough in that it tells the stories - successful and failed of organization consulting as a 'applied clinical' practice." J.M. Ryan , Human Resource Management

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Larry Hirschhorn is principal and senior research manager at the Wharton Center for Applied Research. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Unknown Binding: 33 pages
• Publisher: Dept. of Statistics, [University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1991)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B0006DFNE4
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Deeper Look at Organizational Life, April 27, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: The Workplace Within: Psychodynamics of Organizational Life (Paperback)

Don't let the title of this fine book scare you off. Hirschhorn's The Workplace Within is one of the finest tools available for the executive who wishes to deepen his or her understanding of what goes on in organizations today. On the other hand, even though it is very clearly written and laden with real-life scenarios from the author's consulting work in organizations, it is not a simple "how to" management text.

Hirschhorn gives very detailed descriptions of what goes wrong in organizations when we do not question our assumptions. It is almost as if we are sleep walking through our daily work routines, acting out rivalries, making absurd demands on each other, or alternatively, minimzing the actual terror and anxiety we feel.

When read carefully, thoroughly and critically, this book can be a wonderful tool for extending one's social sensitivity in the workplace. It is the kind of book that you can turn to again and again to help illuminate confusing incidents in the workplace and to create attentiveness to one's actual impact on others. As such it is a useful companion to a 360 degree feedback process or participation in an executive assessment or coaching program.