Freedom and Accountability at Work: Applying Philosophic Insight to the Real World [Paperback]

Peter Koestenbaum (Author), Peter Block (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0787955949 | ISBN-13: 978-0787955946 | Publication Date: August 1, 2001 | Edition: 1

Peter Koestenbaum and Peter Block offer you a new perspective for viewing the workplace through the lens of philosophy so that you may have a better understanding of how to reclaim your freedom and accountability and encourage the same in others. They provide a radical new approach to your work-a-day life that will bring true meaning and power to your work.

Freedom and Accountability at Work offers you the information you need to:
* Gain strength and meaning by transforming your thinking on how you view anxiety, doubt, death, and guilt
* Find new ways to bring spiritual and ethical values into your workplace
* Engage in profound change that will help you overcome cynicism that comes from superficial change
* Replace your loss of organizational loyalty and safety with a sense of freedom and accountability

"Both Koestenbaum and Block are such passionate men who bring together what we all seek in our work life-meaning, insight, and humanness. Bless them for this book."
--Joyce DeShano, board chair, Ascension Health

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Koestenbaum is a philosophy professor and veteran writer, and coauthor Block is a business consultant and a longtime friend of Koestenbaum's. This book, a product of their professional affiliation, is a "restatement" of two important books of Koestenbaum's, The Vitality of Death (1971) and The New Image of the Person (1978). Both books were academically oriented, and Block has taken their messages and retooled them for a more popular audience. The fundamental point of the new book is that the basic tenets of philosophy can be applied to life, particularly to the workplace, to such an extent that our lives can be changed. The primary focus is on the concept of individual freedom and how managers can best utilize that concept to create a more productive, but at the same time more humane, work environment. This provocative, challenging book is not easy reading. It must be taken in small doses, for each idea requires time to digest. Brad Hooper
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Review

"Both Koestenbaum and Block are such passionate men who bring together what we all seek in our work life-meaning, insight, and humanness. Bless them for this book." (Joyce DeShano, board chair, Ascension Health)

"Peter Koestenbaum's message of courage and accountability in the face of anxiety has struck a powerful chord. He and Peter Block have helped us see the very core of our contribution-compassionately confront people with their own freedom." (Kenneth F. Murphy, senior vice president, human resources, Philip Morris USA)

"Prepare to have your world rocked. Koestenbaum and Block take on the profound task of understanding existence and its place in organizations. You will never be the same." (Christopher G. Worley, director, MSOD Program, Pepperdine University)

"This book deepens the ongoing economic and social dialogue about balancing wealth creation with core human values. The authors' words offer encouragement to people in organizations who choose to elevate their work by using it as a vehicle to discover and strengthen the links between identity and industry, passion and prosperity, meaning and marketability, service and success." (Joseph A. Braidish, director, Kelley Executive Partners, Indiana University Kelley School of Business)

"Peter Koestenbaum brings the full force of his intellectual prowess to bear on the major questions of human existence. His insights are priceless even as they challenge some of our most deeply held assumptions about organizational life." (Camden C. Danielson, executive director, Kelley Executive Partners, Indiana University)

"This work is one of those rare business book breaks from the 'how to?to the what if?'. Block and Koestenbaum provide the foundation for a philosophy of hope for the work place for life; adding meaning to both." (Howard Schultz, cofounder, The Learning Consortium)

"This book is for the curious and the courageous. The curious will learn from a master philosopher and be intellectually challenged. The courageous will be asked to choose freedom and accountability. Be forewarned!" (Charlotte Roberts, author, Fifth Discipline Fieldbook, The Dance of Change)

"Tired of being held? and holding others?accountable? Disappointed that your time management system didn't reduce your stress? Think freedom in the workplace is an oxymoron? Then get ready to go deep, and emerse yourself in the wisdom of Koestenbaum according to Block." (Paul Anderson, dean, Northern California School for Managing and Leading Change)

"I've taught Peter Koestenbaum's leadership philosophy all over the world...and it works! Its broad and all encompassing...and brings a powerful message of hope to us in the workplace." (George I. Fitzpatrick, The Authentic Leader, teacher and practitioner)

"This is an important book by two important management thinkers. Peter Koestenbaum and Peter Block offer an alternative, if not an antidote, to the shallowness of 'speed, simplicity and (unwarranted) self-confidence' by challenging managers to think about freedom and accountability." (Robert M. Fulmer, coauthor, The Leadership Investment, Distinguished Visiting Professor Graziadio School of Business, Pepperdine University)

"Noted philosopher Peter Koestenbaum and author Peter Block present some new perspectives for seekers of meaning, insight and humanity in the work place." (Training, 12/01)

"It's perceptions are strikingly original, challenging the reader on every page to speculate and transform." (Napra Review, 1/02)

"Koestenbaum and Block present more in-depth information on philosophical tenets and do an outstanding job of helping readers see how to apply the ideas." (Choice, 2/02)

"...it provides deep an valuable insight..." (Professional Manager, March 2002)

"It belongs on your retail shelves and also in your backroom to be read and shared with employees." (New Age Retailer, May/June 2002)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 439 pages
• Publisher: Pfeiffer; 1 edition (August 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787955949
• ISBN-13: 978-0787955946
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #723,529 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get this book in your library asap!, August 13, 2001

By 

David Cox (Jonesboro, Arkansas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Freedom and Accountability at Work: Applying Philosophic Insight to the Real World (Paperback)

Koestenbaum and Block have put together a book that is head and shoulders above anything I have read in the leadership domain in a long time. This is a book with deep penetrating messages that go to the very heart of what it means to be a human being and to bring our authentic selves to the workplace. It's obvious that Koestenbaum has played a major role in Block's philosophical underpinnings as a management consultant. The two scholars share a special bond and admiration for one another that make for a special book.

The book is organized into four parts with Block introducing each part followed by chapters that are adaptations of Koestenbaum's 1970's writings on existential philosophy. Then Block wraps up each part with implications for the workplace in general and for leadership in particular. What makes this book so special is its attention to the fundamental issues of human existence: freedom (free will) and accountability (responsibility) (Part I), anxiety (Part II), death and evil (Part III), and guilt (Part IV). The concepts are integrated into what they call "philosophic insight" that make for fully human organizations. Koestenbaum concludes the book with a summation, reminiscence, and glossary.

This is a book that spoke to me on both a personal level and as a professional educator. The insights are profound and get to the core issues of leadership. My hunch is it will be a classic. This is a book I will savor and read over and over again for many years to come. I will recommend it to others, as I am doing now, every chance I get.

24 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What it means to be human, December 13, 2001

By 

P. Lemberg (Rancho Santa Fe, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Freedom and Accountability at Work: Applying Philosophic Insight to the Real World (Paperback)

This book is tough sledding, and it is not for everybody. However, if you are willing to work your way through it, authors Koestenbaum and Block offer a few terrific and hugely powerful insights.

Freedom and Accountability is a curious and rare piece of writing - existentialist philosophy applied to the world of work. The authors are concerned with issues such as choice and free will, accountability and responsibility, and what it means to be an authentic human being - critical issues as the industrial era hierarchical workplace evolves into something new.

Plus - here's the gem - they assert that it is only by acknowledging and internalizing the fragility of life, and the immediacy and totality of death - that one finally stops wasting one's time, ceases doing things which do not matter, and becomes truly empowered.

And here's an interesting idea: they further assert that anxiety - that near-universal feeling most of us seek to avoid - is really the stuff that makes us feel alive, and it is a direct result of our exercise of free will. The only people without anxiety are either doing nothing important - taking no risks, or are totally repressed.

This book resonated with my own work as an executive coach, speaker and strategist,. And I liked it a lot. I find it helpful to read words which express my own thoughts with greater clarity than I had previously.

These ideas may also feel familiar to students of Landmark Education and Werner Erhardt - they have similar roots in the writings of philosophers Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars weLEAD Book Review from the Editor of leadingtoday.org, February 12, 2002

By 

Greg L. Thomas (Litchfield, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Freedom and Accountability at Work: Applying Philosophic Insight to the Real World (Paperback)

This is not your typical book on management or leadership. If you are familiar with the previous works of these two authors you will know they intended it to be dramatically different. They succeeded well with Freedom and Accountability at Work. Peter Block starts this journey by writing the introduction. His task is to create a context by which his colleague's writings can be used to understand the dynamics of the modern workplace. Many of the concepts and ideas found in Freedom and Accountability at Work are taken from two previous books written by Koestenbaum. Both The Vitality of Death and The New Image of the Person were written by Koestenbaum in the `70s. These two philosophical books are at the heart of this new publication. This book is written on the premise that it is time to bring philosophy into the world of business by helping others find answers to their questions about the real purpose of work. It includes ways to bring ethical and spiritual values into the workplace.

Block encapsulates this thought when he writes, "Philosophy is really about a universal form of leadership and the possibility open to each person to shape or create an environment that supports the pursuit of meaning and purpose, rather than our current obsession with financial security and material wealth." Freedom and Accountability at Work provides discerning and near tangible ideas about anxiety, freedom, suffering and death. The authors maintain that viewing the purpose of work from the lens of a philosopher can provide a unique shift in mental perception. They believe that by rising above the mental traps that typically ensnare us, we can make our work places more humane and experience the accountability and real freedom we all want. The authors also provide potential solutions to those whose are presently struggling with personal suffering and depression. They encourage the reader to engage in this profound degree of change that will help one to overcome the cynicism that comes from superficial change. It is their contention that leaders need to ask these deeper philosophical questions to become better role models today and to acquire the enabling vision to lead tomorrow.