Productive Workplaces Revisited: Dignity, Meaning, and Community in the 21st Century (Hardcover)

“Marvin Weisbord is a trusted guide leading us to the questions, beliefs, and practices that help us be real contributors in these difficult times.”
—Margaret Wheatley, author, Leadership and the New Science

“This is an adventure story—the story of Marv Weisbord’s courageous search for ways to help managers and employees cooperate to create more productive and humane workplaces.”
—Paul Lawrence, Donham Professor Emeritus, Harvard Business School

"Those who remain true to the values presented in this book will not only be more effective in their work, but more ethical as well.”
—Ken Hultman, author, Making Change Irresistible and Balancing Individual and Organizational Values

“This book now falls into the category of a classic, a staple for those striving to understand the fundamental reasons for successful organizations . . . This is a readable book, free of ‘glitz’ and ‘flavors of the month. 217;”
—Robert Dilworth, associate professor of human resource management, Virginia Commonwealth University

In Productive Workplaces Revisited, Marvin Weisbord takes the next step in exploring effective strategies for improving workplace productivity  through dignity, meaning, and community. Remarkably, in this new edition the author revisits the case studies from the first edition, Productive Workplaces, to show the long-term effects of OD interventions -- twenty-plus years after the fact and provides invaluable insights for practitioner and student alike. In five new chapters, Weisbord reinterprets his systems work in health care and steel-making, describes how “future search,” his method for “getting everybody improving whole systems,” has crossed cultures on five continents, and summarizes his learning from following up cases decades later. This edition also presents in-depth case studies of organizations that have used these techniques to increase output, cut costs, create strategic plans, manage conflict between functions, and more.

“Marvin Weisbord is a trusted guide leading us to the questions, beliefs, and practices that help us be real contributors in these difficult times.”
--Margaret Wheatley, author, Leadership and the New Science

“This is an adventure story--the story of Marv Weisbord’s courageous search for ways to help managers and employees cooperate to create more productive and humane workplaces.”
--Paul Lawrence, Donham Professor Emeritus, Harvard Business School

"Those who remain true to the values presented in this book will not only be more effective in their work, but more ethical as well.”
--Ken Hultman, author, Making Change Irresistible and Balancing Individual and Organizational Values

“This book now falls into the category of a classic, a staple for those striving to understand the fundamental reasons for successful organizations . . . This is a readable book, free of ‘glitz’ and ‘flavors of the month. 217;”
--Robert Dilworth, associate professor of human resource management, Virginia Commonwealth University

In Productive Workplaces Revisited, Marvin Weisbord takes the next step in exploring effective strategies for improving workplace productivity through dignity, meaning, and community. Remarkably, in this new edition the author revisits the case studies from the first edition, Productive Workplaces, to show the long-term effects of OD interventions¾twenty-plus years after the fact and provides invaluable insights for practitioner and student alike. In five new chapters, Weisbord reinterprets his systems work in health care and steel-making, describes how “future search,” his method for “getting everybody improving whole systems,” has crossed cultures on five continents, and summarizes his learning from following up cases decades later. This edition also presents in-depth case studies of organizations that have used these techniques to increase output, cut costs, create strategic plans, manage conflict between functions, and more.

Just as in the classic Productive Workplaces, this new and expanded edition offers a model, guidelines, and successful methods for improving organizations under conditions of nonstop change.

Marvin Weisbord is an internationally-known consultant and writer and a co-founder of Future Search Network, a non-profit organization that involves people worldwide in voluntary social, technological, and economic change. He is the author of Productive Workplaces, Organizational Diagnosis, Discovering Common Ground, and coauthor of Future Search: An Action Guide.