Customer Reviews

The Pursuit of Organizational Intelligence: Decisions and Learning in Organizations (Blackwell Business)

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This book is a gem for anyone thinking about how organizations work. The chapter on organizational performance alone is well worth the price of the whole book: For example, "It is not clear tht organizational purpose can be portrayed as unitary, or that the multiple purposes of an organization are reliably constant." This opens the door for intelligence, as interpretation in context, rather than simply as the result of the detached number-crunching rampant in today's organizational studies. Other chapters are very "quotable" also; March has enough status in the field to have attracted notable and articulate co-authors for various sections. I am personally interested in how March and colleagues discuss the role of storying in organizations. I wonder to what extent March et al. still hold out for a truth beyond the stories, or whether they are able to see the truths within them. That just goes to show that this book is capable of clearly describing the essential concerns of organizations in general, and management in particular, while also sparking ideas and debates. Read it, please, then let's engage the ideas by sharing our own stories.