Managing Organizational Change: A Multiple Perspectives Approach [Paperback]

Ian Palmer (Author), Richard Dunford (Author), Gib Akin (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0072496800 | ISBN-13: 978-0072496802 | Publication Date: March 11, 2005 | Edition: 1

Managing Organizational Change, by Palmer/Dunford/Akin, provides managers with an awareness of the issues involved in managing change, moving them beyond "one-best way" approaches and providing them with access to multiple perspectives that they can draw upon in order to enhance their success in producing organizational change. These multiple perspectives provide a theme for the text as well as a framework for the way each chapter outlines different options open to managers in helping them to identify, in a reflective way, the actions and choices open to them. The authors favor using multiple perspectives to ensure that change managers are not trapped by a "one-best way" of approaching change which limits their options for action. Changing organizations is as messy as it is exhilarating, as frustrating as it is satisfying, as muddling-through and creative a process as it is a rational one. This book recognizes these tensions for those involved in managing organizational change. Rather than pretend that they do not exist it confronts them head on, identifying why they are there, how they can be managed and the limits they create for what the manager of organizational change can achieve.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill/Irwin; 1 edition (March 11, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0072496800
• ISBN-13: 978-0072496802
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #900,390 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Basic college text, September 14, 2008

By 

ANNALISA DEMARTA (Rochester, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Managing Organizational Change: A Multiple Perspectives Approach (Paperback)

I read most of this book for an MBA course on managing org change. I think it offers some valuable insight but should be coupled with other texts/articles for enhanced insight. Easy to read and understand.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good college text, May 9, 2008

By 

fuzzalot (Dearborn, MI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Managing Organizational Change: A Multiple Perspectives Approach (Paperback)

This book goes in to good detail on the whys and wherefors of organizational change. The reader will come away with a very good understanding of the subject without a slant toward any single change methodology.

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Absolute Waste of Time!, February 2, 2010

By 

K. T. Williams (Austell, GA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Managing Organizational Change: A Multiple Perspectives Approach (Paperback)

Listen, if you have nothing else to do other than read this book, consider donating your time to charity and you will get more for your money as opposed to reading this book. It's a bunch a jargon, useless tables, theories, and models that will get you thrown out on your can if you brought this mess up into an organization. Of all the textbooks I've ever purchased, I'd put this one at the top of the garbage pile as the poster child for people who stay in school too long and never get any real world experience. I would suggest that the authors get a job, start a business, and then write a book. I'm in a class of 21 people and we all feel the same way. I won't be trading this book back in. No no. That would be littering. I'm upset that I have to give it a 1.