Narcissistic Process and Corporate Decay: The Theory of the Organizational Ideal [Hardcover]

Howard Schwartz (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0814779131 | ISBN-13: 978-0814779132 | Publication Date: December 1, 1990

Howard S. Schwartz shows how American industry is in a process of decay unable to cope with foreign competition and stagnant in technological development. He attributes this Organizational Decay to a reluctance in the part of corporate members to deal with reality.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The first in-depth reconstruction of the struggle based on fully original documentation. It is, indeed, a welcome and important book."-"American Historical Review", --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Howard S. Schwartz is Associate Professor at the School of Business Administration at Oakland University in Michigan.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 168 pages
• Publisher: NYU Press (December 1, 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0814779131
• ISBN-13: 978-0814779132
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,094,226 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Business Book That Tells the Truth--For a Change!, August 5, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Narcissistic Process and Corporate Decay : The Theory of the Organizational Ideal (Paperback)

I have asked Howard Schwartz to write a new edition of this incredibly truthful, and therefore unusual and important book. He hasn't responded to my request---I wish he would update this book to the present. It would be a mind-blower book for the year 2000. Anti-corporate activists MUST read this book to understand what they are up against even though published in 1990.

This book is the ONLY book that uncovers how and why management schools such as the Harvard Business School and others fail to prepare managers to deal with their employees and the public in any other way than abusively! Scwartz teaches organization behavior and knows his subject!

Michael Maccoby has written in the Harvard Business Review (Jan/Feb 2000) that management narcissism is on the increase. Schwartz's book describes what this will mean---especially if, for example, NASA proceeds with Cassini (nuclear powered) type probes. NASA administrators, like all federal administrators, share narcissistic character styles that make their judgements dangerous, because these narcissistic folks are so divorced from reality they would risk their own families to maintain image.

Take the 1986 shuttle disaster. The top administrator said that the chances of failure were 1 in 100,000. The engineers and statisticians said 1 in 20. Why such a lie by the administrator? Because Reagan wanted the Challenger to fly....and among narcissists, who can say no when it's so easy and seemingly necessary to lie to keep one's image!

Narcissistic Process describes exactly how increasing narcissism among management elites will cause destruction of the planet---and exactly why we, the public, won't stop them (because we emulate these sick folks and are totally unconscious of our need to project our power!)

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good step forward., August 25, 2003

By 

flifdk (København Denmark) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Narcissistic Process and Corporate Decay : The Theory of the Organizational Ideal (Paperback)

This is a dense book, and takes time and effort to read and understood.

If you have read 'The Fifth Discipline', the books of Chris Agyris, and other organizational theory but still thinks something is missing, that they can't really explain how organizations work (but only how they ought to work), this book will get you further. It is not an ends to all means, but definitly an important new consideration.

The book's greatest weakness is the same as many other organization books: it doesn't tell where his theory comes to short, and what consequences the 'organizational-environmental-biospheres' have.
Knowing the very basics about Freud other psychology helps as the book tries to bridge the gap between the psychology and social understanding of organizations.

What the book does, is to represent an interesting link from narcissism (the psychological level) to how subordinates and managers interact (the social/organizational level), to how (and which) employes are promoted and thus which values are amplified among top-level managers. This is then used in the second part of the book to explain the Challenger accident and the big downfall in marketshare of General Motors.