The Leader's Change Handbook: An Essential Guide to Setting Direction and Taking Action (Jossey-Bass Business & Management) [Hardcover]

Jay A. Conger (Author), Gretchen M. Spreitzer (Author), Edward E. Lawler III (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0787943517 | ISBN-13: 978-0787943516 | Publication Date: November 26, 1998 | Edition: 1

A Stunning Achievement in Change ManagementIn October of 1997, the nation's top business theorists and practitioners met at a conference cosponsored by USC's Leadership Institute and the Center for Effective Organizations. The group was challenged to present their most advanced ideas regarding leadership and change management. This guide is the stunning result of their collective efforts. Charged with fascinating case studies, action strategies, and unbeatable advice, The Leader's Change Handbook features fresh works by Christopher Bartlett, Michael Beer, John Kotter, David Nadler, Ron Heifetz, Susan Mohrman, Bob Quinn and other distinguished contributors. What it offers is a uniquely coherent, cutting-edge approach to leading today?s organizations -- an approach only this elite group, working together toward a common vision, could offer.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This important book provides both state-of-the-art help to managers on the pragmatics of leading change, as well as a guide to researchers as to what we know and do not know on leading change. The book will be an important reference and guide for managers, students, and professors as they work and research these crucial issues." (Mike Tushman, Phillip Hettleman Professor of Management, Columbia University Graduate School of Business)

"Full of useful ideas about how to lead organization transformations. This book can make it happen!" (Richard F. Teerlink, chairman, Harley-Davidson, Inc)

"As a practitioner I look for books that make sense, that have a theory base that is innovative and has an applications orientation that helps me contribute to my organization. This compilation richly and clearly provides both." (Patrick Canavan, senior vice president and director, Global Leadership and Organizational Development, Motorola)

"A must-read for agents of change! This book leads you through a realistic course for approaching and accomplishing significant organizational change. It provides outstanding examples of companies whose leaders have successfully established focused visions, environments of trust, and embraced their people as the most important resource. The Leader's Change Handbook will become a valued guide for leaders of the 21st century." (Ross H. Roberts, vice president, general manager, Ford Division, Ford Motor Company)

From the Inside Flap

Recently, the nation's top business researchers and practitioners gathered on the University of Southern California campus. They came together at the invitation of USC's Leadership Institute and the Center for Effective Organizations, two of the country's premier think tanks on leadership and change. Their mission: to collaborate on a book that would present the most advanced ideas about the role of leaders as they attempt to radically transform their organizations.This elite group of thinkers, influential authors, and business gurus shared their experiences, asked the tough questions, and conspired to create the most up-to-date and authoritative work in the field. The result is The Leader's Change Handbook.Full of fascinating case studies, action strategies, and unbeatable advice, The Leader's Change Handbook contains the best new thinking from each of its distinguished contributors on the twin challenges leaders face as they try to create leaner, more responsive organizations while empowering their workforces. This compilation of essays is a unique synthesis of wisdom and insight presented by a coterie of business luminaries—David Nadler, Richard Pascale, Bob Quinn, Christopher Bartlett, Ron Heifetz, and Susan Mohrman among them—working toward a common vision.Taken individually, each chapter offers specific solutions for executives, managers, consultants, and human resource professionals struggling to implement change within their organizations. Taken together, they form a comprehensive handbook that outlines the key elements of effective change management, expands the traditional notions of leadership, and anticipates the future of organizational transformation.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 432 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (November 26, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787943517
• ISBN-13: 978-0787943516
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,043,839 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thirteen Assumptions of Advanced Change Theory, May 10, 2001

By 

Turgay BUGDACIGIL (Istanbul, Turkey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Leader's Change Handbook: An Essential Guide to Setting Direction and Taking Action (Jossey-Bass Business & Management) (Hardcover)

This book is a remarkable guide from 20 remarkable thought leaders for leaders of the new century. Jay A.Conger, Gretchen M.Spreitzer, and Edward E.Lawler III divide this invaluable volume into four parts. As written by them, Part Three-Chapter Seven, by Robert E.Quinn and Nancy T.Snyder, introduces Advanced Change Theory (ACT), arguing that the leaders must change him- or herself first to ensure that his or her deed and actions are consistent with the vision of the future before expecting others to change.

In this context, R.E.Quinn and N.T.Snyder identify thirteen assumptions/principles of ACT as following:

1. Assumptions of relationship: alignment with changing reality requires relationships of inclusion, openness, and emergent community.

2. Assumptions of purpose: to establish an emergent community, a change agent must put the pursuit of the common good ahead of self interest.

3. Assumptions of resistance: to maintain alignment with changing reality and with the common good, a change agent focuses on internal sources of resistance, continually seeking to reduce self-deception and personal hypocrisy.

4. Assumptions of influence: in influencing others, the change agent first models the courage and discipline of self modification, the resulting integrity then serves to influence others by attracting them into a relationship, or community, of mutual support and exploration.

5. Assumptions of empowerment: by transcending self-deception and personal hypocrisy, the change agent empowers and frees the self from the controlling sanctions within the existing social system.

6. Assumptions of enlightenment: in freeing self from external sanctions through personal modification, the change agent obtains increased understanding, enlightenment, or vision about direction and strategy.

7. Assumptions of volition: the change agent's increased understanding and personal empowerment result in increased reverence for the potential and the volition of the change target.

8. Assumptions of motivation: given the high respect for the volition of the change target, the change agent seeks to inspire growth by attracting the change target to engage in noble tasks of service for the higher good of the community.

9. Assumptions of causality: the change agent recognizes the change target's need for relationship and assumes that change happens as a nonlinear process of mutuality and cocreation that further requires continued integrity and increasing trust.

10. Asumptions of strategic vision: the change agent's efforts in self-modification and empowerment result in increased cognitive complexity and the ability to see larger governing rules or seemingly paradoxical relationships.

11. Assumptions of behavior: freed from the influence of the existing sanction system, and holding a more complex or paradoxical world view, the change agent engages in unconventional behaviors that distort routines, capture attention, and move the system toward the edge of chaos.

12. Assumptions of determination: the change agent assumes that altered internal states determine altered external states.

13. Assumptions of action: the change agent is a self-authorizing person with a bias for action and enactment under uncertainty.

Throughout the presentation of ACT, each of these assumptions is illustrated by a quote from three transformational change agents: Jesus Christ, Mohandas K. Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr. Then, Quinn and Snyder explore the applicability of ACT in an account of a cultural change effort at Whirlpool under the leadership of its CEO David Whitwam.

Highly recommended.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A boring book, January 30, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Leader's Change Handbook: An Essential Guide to Setting Direction and Taking Action (Jossey-Bass Business & Management) (Hardcover)

After reading numerous leadership books, and as an MBA student I was greatly disappointed by this book. The book was very dry. The leadership concepts that the authors wrote about were conventional concepts that I had known about for many years. It is a shame that so many intellectual minds cannot write a better book. The book is a hard read and the reader will most likely fall sleep before finishing the first chapter.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enlightening, engaging essays on organizational change., March 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Leader's Change Handbook: An Essential Guide to Setting Direction and Taking Action (Jossey-Bass Business & Management) (Hardcover)

Leadership and change seem inexorably linked, although in this collection of papers some writers challenge even this conventional wisdom. This is an enlightening gathering of contributions by leading authorities. It is based on the findings and conclusion of executives and consultants and conveys observations and lessons from the experiences of such companies as Whirlpool, GE, Shell, and Lucent.

There are lots of nuggets, small and large, in these pages, for instance: a highlighting of the seven primary errors and eight steps to transforming an organization; an explanation of four basic change strategies including Advanced Change Theory, a new approach that accounts for the work of such change agents as Gandhi and King; definitions of seven organizational design elements; and a checklist for transformational leaders. Overall, there is a wealth of thoughtfulness making up this collection of enlightening and engaging essays, capped-off by a helpful summary chapter that captures the books take-away lessons. Reviewed with much interest by Gerry Stern, author of Stern's SourceFinder Master Directory to HR and Business Management Information and Resources.