Customer Reviews

Management of Organizational Behavior (9th Edition)

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Ken Blanchard went on to become the management guru of the 90s, writing countless books that can be found right here on Amazon. However, this text book is where is all began. I call it a text book because it is. This text has been used and is still used in management schools around the nation. Written with Hersey and Johnson, this book is the definitive foundation text on how to manage organizational behavior as it pertains to managing people. Following are a couple key points:

1) Diagnosis: It is a manager's job to modify their management style to employee needs. Evaluting employee needs and corresponding management styles can be easily done using Situational Leadership tools (found in book).

2) Intervention: Performance can be managed using the fundamental postive reinforcement psychology. Further, by consciously indentifying needs, performance can be improved more rapidly.

3) Evaluation: If behavioral change does not occur, the individual may not be in the right role.

This sounds dry and obvious by today's standards, but it wasn't when the first edition of this book was published (1980s). Further, most modern organiztional and management theory is based on this book. There is still gold to dig from its pages.

I used this text in an 8-week 400 level leadership in education course. The overall concept of situational leadership was new to me in this class. I felt that the information in the book could have been greatly reduced and taught in just a few weeks. The same 4 ideas are repeated for different general situations. I found the text dull and uninteresting after the first couple chapters when no new ideas were presented.
The online website was required for my course. The teacher graded us on the quizzes and the case studies. You can take the quiz, see your results with the correct answers, then retake the quiz before sending it to your instructor for "grading". The case study entries have no formatting capabilities and you must use basic HTML if you want to make paragraphs. Also, after you enter the email addresses to send your results, you must check a box next to that name or it won't send. I didn't find the online material very engaging nor the quizzes challenging.

Outstanding book on organizational leadership. Not simply focused on one type of leadership, but drew on several different models. Authors drew parallels and contrasted styles in an excellent manner. THE book on organizational leadership

Quick delivery, book in superb condition, as advertised. I will do business with them again.

Updated information on situational leadership model that is easy to learn and implement to improve one's leadership abilities and improve organizational results. Well written and contains enough examples to assist the reader in grasping the central concepts of the model's execution without belaboring points or creating just another dull text book on leadership techniques. Good addition to the library of anyone interested in increasing their personal leadership capabilities or anyone seriously studying the art of organizational leadership.

Like it or not, agree with it or not--can afford it or not--this is the most influential book on leadership on the planet. It's defended its title for a couple of decades now, and earned the right to be taken seriously. Fortunately, it's also a pretty good read.

Skeptical? Stay with me for a few paragraphs. Hersey, Blanchard and Johnson's book begins like most textbooks, with a history of their topic. Don't be put off by several chapters of history, theory, definitions and distinctions. Absorb the three key leadership competencies of diagnosing situations, adapting behavior to influence them, and communicating effectively. Perk up a little when you review the various situational approaches to leadership. All of this early stuff will be useful, but it is just due diligence, preparation for the good stuff.

And the good stuff begins with the chapter on "Situational Leadership." It's the one you should examine carefully if there is some danger you aren't going to read the rest. The situational leadership model focuses on followers' readiness to perform as a combination of their ability and willingness to do so. Effective leaders diagnose their followers' readiness and respond with a leadership style of telling, selling, participating or delegating. Over time, leaders develop followers through the levels or readiness until they are performing with little supervision.

There's a bit more to it, of course. But that's the basic model. Subsequent chapters elaborate this model and explore implications for training, employee discipline, communication, and the development and use of organizational power. A series of applied chapters provide model-based advice for leading teams, increasing individual performance, fostering organizational commitment and leading organizations through change. It all fits together and makes good sense.

My advice is to get this book, read it, and begin increasing your ability to work with people. If you are skeptical, then sit down in one of those comfortable chairs at Borders and give the situational leadership chapter a good, hard read. If you aren't hooked, then this isn't your book right now. Give it another look in six months or so.

I do not have a lot of time because I am in a masters in education program so I will be short and to the point. This was a required book for a class, but I was quite pleasantly surprised to discover that this book is actually quite well written. Some parts are even amusing. As I said, not your regular textbook! It is also chock full of pithy quotations. Enjoy!

I really enjoyed reading this book. The principles are relevent to todays workplace. I plan on keeping the book as a reference after graduation. Our class dose not use the CD which is included, so I am unable to rate it.

This was one of the best textbooks that I have read. It is very applicable to management and I am enjoying it and learning a lot!

I bought 3 of this book for me and my classmates. This book has a lot of useful information you can use in the classroom as well as your workplace. It's a must-have for your workplace library.