Quantum Organizations: A New Paradigm for Achieving Organizational Success and Personal Meaning [Hardcover]

Ralph Kilmann (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 8, 2001 | ISBN-10: 089106155X | ISBN-13: 978-0891061557

Success in this century requires a new approach to allow people to see the interconnections between new technologies, markets, and organizations while embracing speed and complexity.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Add this book to your reading and reflection, you are bound to learn from it. -- OD Network Notes, July 2001

Puts together an approach based on high-level thinking about changing business systems and approaches to them... good topic these days. -- Alaska Business Monthly, September 2001

From the Author

At several points during the past 30 years of my professional life, I developed a deep-felt need to "put it all together," to integrate all my separate pieces of management/organizational knowledge, and to see all my ideas become whole. It is, for me, identical to becoming a whole person rather than being a collection of fragmented selves. My strength as a scholar/practitioner is seeing the subtle links among seemingly separate things, the interconnections among diverse ideas, and the relationships among culturally different people. During the mid-1990s, I was about to start on my next integrated effort. This time, I wanted to be even more comprehensive, inclusive, integrative, and revolutionary. This led me to the new, 20th century physics. The new physics led me to the unique role of consciousness. From there, I explored spirit.

The book took me a full two years of effort. I wrote this book to fulfill a professional dream. After 30 years of dedicated work, I integrated the essence of all my theoretical and practical knowledge into a universal framework. If it gives other people a tremendous range and depth of knowledge for their organizational and personal lives, then I will be pleased and fulfilled.

This book presents a systematic approach for transforming old Newtonian organizations into new quantum organizations. In one book, the reader will find all the essential concepts and methods for understanding and transforming any organization into a self-designing, self-managing quantum organization--an organization that feeds on self-aware consciousness and further develops self-aware consciousness throughout the universe.

To help you understand and incorporate these insights from the new science to the three key areas of organizational transformation, I used my graphic arts skills to create 107 elaborate full-color illustrations to visualize the key themes.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: Nicholas Brealey Publishing (May 8, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 089106155X
• ISBN-13: 978-0891061557
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 7.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,828,437 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ralph H. Kilmann, Ph.D., is CEO and Senior Consultant at Kilmann Diagnostics in Newport Coast, California. Formerly, he was the George H. Love Professor of Organization and Management at the Katz School of Business, University of Pittsburgh--which was his professional home for thirty years. He earned both his B.S. degree and M.S. degree in industrial administration from Carnegie Mellon University (1970) and a Ph.D. degree in management from the University of California, Los Angeles (1972).

Kilmann is an internationally recognized authority on systems change. He has consulted for numerous corporations throughout the United States and Europe, including AT&T, Kodak, IBM, Ford, General Electric, Lockheed, Olivetti, Philips, TRW, Wolseley, and Xerox. He has also consulted for numerous health-care, financial, and government organizations, including the U.S. Bureau of the Census and the Office of the President. He is profiled in Who's Who in America and Who's Who in the World.

Kilmann has published more than twenty books and one hundred articles on such subjects as conflict management, organizational design, problem management, change management, and quantum organizations. He is the developer of the MAPS Design Technology and coauthor of several diagnostic instruments, including the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument, the Kilmann-Saxton Culture-Gap® Survey, and the Organizational Courage Assessment.

For more information, visit: www.Kilmanndiagnostics.com (for conflict management) and www.kilmann.com (for change management)

Or contact Dr. Kilmann directly: [e-mail].

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Taking an eclectic approach to DEEP organizational change, July 27, 2001

By 

Gerry Stern "Stern's Management Review Online" (Culver City, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Quantum Organizations: A New Paradigm for Achieving Organizational Success and Personal Meaning (Hardcover)

The author puts organizational transformation into the context of a shift from the Cartesian-Newtonian to quantum-relativistic paradigm. He places, and links together, the study of organization and change initiatives into the context of cutting-edge transformations in physics, evolutionary biology, and the study of the brain/mind that are changing our view of reality.

The quantum organization is profiled by seven attributes including: inclusion of consciousness in self-designing systems; cross-boundary processes; and, internal commitment of active participants. Kilmann presents a five-stage process for closing the gap between the old and the new (i.e., quantum) organization.

The author delves into the primary change initiatives for achieving self-transformation consisting of quantum infrastructures, formal systems, and process management. Eight tracks are used to address these three components. These tracks concern: culture, skills, teams, strategy-structure, reward system, learning process, gradual process (continuous improvement on a unit level), and radical process (cross-boundary redesign on the macro level).

Self-awareness and growth are critical in the overall scheme. This emphasis on the individual makes this a highly unique work. Stern's Management Review Online (hrconsultant) finds this book to be fascinating, eclectic, and HIGHLY innovative in its approach to deep organizational change. The liberal use of full-color, lively diagrams greatly helps convey the meaning of key concepts.

The author has tried to bring together just about everything having to do with organizational transformation into one grand design; we believe he has been successful. For those searching for a different perspective on organization, out to 'push the envelop,' this is a book well worth your time. Highly recommended.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Management Classic!!, January 20, 2002

By 

Greg T. Smith (Cincinnati, Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Quantum Organizations: A New Paradigm for Achieving Organizational Success and Personal Meaning (Hardcover)

Dr. Ralph Kilmann's magnum opus, Quantum Organizations, should seriously be considered as a watershed moment in the history of organizational change management literature.

Dr. Kilmann, a best selling author, professor, and consultant to Fortune 500 companies and the Office of the U.S. President, lucidly and systematically busts through the traditional barriers separating business, science, and western philosophical thought to create a new paradigm likely to change the scope of how we view our careers and lives in general for decades to come.

On my book shelf, I have purposely placed Quantum Organizations next to Drucker's The Practice of Management, Peters' In Search of Excellence, and Grove's Only the Paranoid Survive. More importantly, it is also not too far away from De Tocqueville's Democracy in America, Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, and Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind. Quantum Organizations is that important to our culture and how we organize and adapt our businesses and lives for optimal performance and personal growth.

It is my guess that folks who won't take this book seriously are also those who are susceptible to fads, buzzwords, and quick fixes. It is also these exact same folks who seem to end up more vulnerable than most to strategic inflection points, layoffs, takeovers, and liquidation.

An added note, although this is an organizational change management treatise, career-minded individuals struggling with their jobs and lives after the events of 9/11/01 will find added depth and meaning after reading this work. Additionally, B-School graduates can utilize this work to fill some the void left as a result of academic specialization. Dr. Kilmann is particularly adept at connecting the silos of the liberal arts and sciences with "Business 101."

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Organizational Development Treasure, January 24, 2005

By 

Roger E. Herman (Greensboro, NC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Quantum Organizations: A New Paradigm for Achieving Organizational Success and Personal Meaning (Hardcover)

The recurring theme today is transformation. Corporate transformation. Personal transformation. As I see this book, it's an insightful guide to understanding and leading change. It's a full book, with helpful color illustrations---the kind of manuscript that will consume a considerable amount of time to move through. It's a deep intellectual work, not a pop management publication.

Kilmann begins by focusing the reader on current conditions, then a comparison and comprehension of "two dueling paradigms" of where we are and where we're going. The new paradigm is explored using the language and concepts of quantum physics that will stimulate and challenge the minds of organizational development readers.

Most of the book is devoted to an exploration of eight tracks, organized by sections titled Quantum Infrastructures, Formal Systems, and Process Management. The sixth chapter, on Critical Success Factors, intertwines the corporate and the personal with an emphasis on consciousness and meaningfulness. Readers will journey through tracks on culture, skills, teamness, strategy-structure, rewards, gradual process, radical process, and the learning process.

A broad bibliography and index make this deep content book even more valuable.