The Paradox Principles: How High Performance Companies Manage Chaos Complexity and Contradiction to Achieve Superior Results [Hardcover]

Price Waterhouse (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 1995

Tumultuous changes affecting corporations have left managers and employees reeling from the shocks and searching for the holy grail of management solutions to set their companies straight. But the techniques-du-jour or programs-of-the-month have done nothing but confuse employees, create chaos in the organization, and cause everyone to lose focus of the true strategic objectives. The key to success is not just some new technique or management trend. It's just not that simple. The high-performance organizations of tomorrow must learn how to deftly balance the tensions and conflicts that challenge the progress and effectiveness of any large enterprise. The Paradox Principles shows managers how to face those conflicts and use paradox as a dynamic tool to create balance and focus within an organization. Lessons learned from executives at over 200 high-performance companies and the collective experience of the Price Waterhouse Change Integration Team show managers how to achieve unparalleled success by better managing the paradoxes inherent in their industry, organization, and strategy. The authors also show managers facing unchartered waters how to: create a high performance organization that is focused and strategically balanced; develop management styles with the best blend of operational efficiency and strategic effectiveness; align the actions of everyone through the use of fewer, more effective, performance measures; manage the complexity and chaos caused by the level of change buffeting all organizations today; move beyond all the hand-wringing about behaviors and beliefs to create a new and positive culture in the organization.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 250 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Trade (September 1, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0786304995
• ISBN-13: 978-0786304998
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,507,812 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Simple Lessons, May 27, 1999

By 

A. J. Valasek (Clemmons, NC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Paradox Principles: How High Performance Companies Manage Chaos Complexity and Contradiction to Achieve Superior Results (Hardcover)

This book is a fairly easy read and doesn't have too much of that doctorate, I'm trying to impress you, language. I think this use of the word paradox is becoming a bit too common these days and these authors also seem to force the concepts to make paradoxes out of them. They also throw a person's reading rhythm "out of whack" by throwing in the chapter on Information Technology which clearly doesn't belong in this book. With that said, I will say that there are some good bits of advice and methods which can be used within a business to help change things around. Overall, I think it is worth a look, but you might want to wait for the paperback version.