Change Masters [Paperback]

Rosabeth Moss Kanter (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 15, 1985 | ISBN-10: 0671528009 | ISBN-13: 978-0671528003

The Change Masters looks behind the scenes at some of the most important companies in America, including Hewlett-Packard, General Electric, Polaroid, General Motors, Wang Laboratories and Honeywell, to describe their organizational structures, their corporate cultures, and their specific strategies.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Rosabeth Moss Kanter, PhD, is a Harvard Business School Professor and has taught at the Yale Business School of Management as well. She is the author of The Change Masters. --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 436 pages
• Publisher: Free Press (March 15, 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671528009
• ISBN-13: 978-0671528003
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #218,053 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #62 in Books > Business & Investing > Management & Leadership > Strategy & Competition

More About the Author

Rosabeth Moss Kanter holds the Ernest L. Arbuckle Professorship at Harvard Business School, where she specializes in strategy, innovation, and leadership for change. Her strategic and practical insights have guided leaders of large and small organizations worldwide for over 25 years, through teaching, writing, and direct consultation to major corporations and governments. The former Editor of Harvard Business Review (1989-1992), Professor Kanter has been named to lists of the "50 most powerful women in the world" (Times of London), and the "50 most influential business thinkers in the world" (Accenture and Thinkers 50 research). In 2001, she received the Academy of Management's Distinguished Career Award for her scholarly contributions to management knowledge, and in 2002 was named "Intelligent Community Visionary of the Year" by the World Teleport Association.

She is the author or co-author of 18 books. Her latest book is SuperCorp: How Vanguard Companies Create Innovation, Profits, Growth, and Social Good, a manifesto for leadership of sustainable enterprises. SuperCorp is based on three years of research and more than 350 interviews in 20 countries.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Review of organisational structure and innovation., January 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Change Masters (Paperback)

If you've ever wondered what's wrong in the organisation you work for, why results are poor, why departments can't work together, why the best people keep leaving and why the rest feel helpless and miserable; this is the book for you. It's an academic text and the author draws strongly from her own research in several different organisations, some of whom she cannot name so gives them her own names - have fun guessing who they are. Of particular value is the section on roadblocks to managerial innovation, or how to prevent organisational success. A definite gift for your boss, but first erase all your comments like "that's us!" or "we do that!" because there will be plenty.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Roadblocks and Enablers of Organizational Change, May 5, 2001

By 

frumiousb "frumiousb" (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Change Masters (Paperback)

_The Change Masters_ was written in 1983, and since that time organizations have become much more focused on issues of transformation, but I think employees of most companies will still recognize their organizations in these pages-- and not necessarily in the positive ways.

This book was written in aid of waking the entrepreneurial spirit of the employees of large corporations and looks closely at the ways that this can be either stifled or made possible.

Clearly written from a wealth of experience, Kanter draws on case studies of companies for whom she has worked. That experience is further supported by citations from academic research and a great deal of very strong analytical thought.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Nothing New, August 8, 2010

By 

James F. Hormozi "malandragem" (Los Angeles, Ca. USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Change Masters (Paperback)

Nicely written but nothing original. Everything in this book is drawn from what then was academically the "thing to say" and from well-known writers in the field. It's like the Pope preaching "peace"- an over generally positive message that no one can disagree with but where his role is not realistically connected in any way to overall implementation or collective responsibility. Good basis for theoretical knowledge, however, if you own a business, it is obvious that the author has neither really owned nor operated a business, and I'm not speaking of "consulting"...this is what most university professors in management studies/organizational behavior do on the side- but of a business in which you have 10 or more employees on a payroll, in which you have to deal with inventories, uncertain customer demand, Federal-State-Local taxes that eat away your profits, 5 year leases, ridiculously high sales taxes (California), threats of bankruptcy, health care for your employees, unemployment/worker's compensation, county inspectors, etc. It is all too easy for academians to write books focusing on one variable alone in a very complex equation, then sell the book and make millions. Worth buying and reading but continue using your common American "horse-sense" to separate the wheat from the weeds. Management studies/Organizational Behavior need a new theory which includes holism of the "unspeakable" elements of business and management. In the same way that professional bodybuilders will not mention that they take "steriods" in their books on nutrition and weighttraining, we need a new theory of management and organization studies which openly discusses its own "steriods".