Organizational Capability: Competing from the Inside Out [Hardcover]

Dave Ulrich (Author), Dale G. Lake (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471618071 | ISBN-13: 978-0471618072 | Publication Date: August 1990 | Edition: 1

For any organization to compete successfully in today's market, it must focus on building not only from the outside but from the inside as well. Shows the correlation between successful people management and the bottom line. Explains how involving employees in the planning and implementation process and allowing them to see the fruits of their labor (the sense of connection between daily work and long-term customer success) benefits the organization. The aim here is to show how focusing on organizational capability will not only meet short-term financial requirements, but also build a solid foundation for the future.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

For any organization to compete successfully in today's market, it must focus on building not only from the outside but from the inside as well. Shows the correlation between successful people management and the bottom line. Explains how involving employees in the planning and implementation process and allowing them to see the fruits of their labor (the sense of connection between daily work and long-term customer success) benefits the organization. The aim here is to show how focusing on organizational capability will not only meet short-term financial requirements, but also build a solid foundation for the future.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (August 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471618071
• ISBN-13: 978-0471618072
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,408,455 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dave Ulrich is a professor of business administration at the University of Michigan School of Business and the author of the best-selling Human Resource Champions, Results-Based Leadership, and The HR Scorecard.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A must for those seeking to sustain change, September 24, 1998

By 

"mpmcdonald" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Organizational Capability: Competing from the Inside Out (Hardcover)

Organizational Capability provides a good explaination of all the peices required to achieve, change, and sustain an organization's competencies. The book really focuses on competency and not capability. This makes the title a misnomer. However it is a worthwhile read for anyone contemplating or leading broad scale change.

The book is definately not for people from Human Resources as between the lines there are some fairly cogent criticisms of traditional HR Departments and their operations.

The only drawbacks to the book are its week testimonials. Frequent references to Apple Computer, GE and others appear weak and less than anecdotal. A few strong case studies would have raised the value of the book dramatically. While this shouldn't keep you from reading it, it does cause you to wade through "fluff" from time to time.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not a very useful book for the complete perspective, August 5, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Organizational Capability: Competing from the Inside Out (Hardcover)

This book focusses on the "human" side of building organizational capabilities. It is a pretty good treatise of how HR and individual development can be used to achieve competetive advantage. The model for competitive advantage given in the book makes interesting reading. But the biggest drawback of the book is the lack of illustrative examples. There are hardly any useful cases. In addition there could have been some focus on value chain activites and how organizational capability responds to that. The book also doesnot focus at all on some of key components of capability like technology, time etc. There is also no clear model/ process given which shows the transition of capabilities to competencies. The emphasis of the book also seems to be how to build organizational capabilty - there are really no clues provided about how strategy should be shaped by capablity.

3.0 out of 5 stars Excellent reference for both academia and corporate alike, June 18, 2011

By 

Amy González "Mimiwhy" (San Juan, PR USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Organizational Capability: Competing from the Inside Out (Hardcover)

This book is an excellent reference, provides an understandable language and structure which helps not only the corporate savvy understand the organizational theories, but also good enough for post grad students and professors as well.