Self Designing Organizations: Learning How to Create High Performance (Addison-Wesley Series on Organization Development) [Paperback]

Susan Albers Mohrman (Author), Thomas G. Cummings (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 189 pages
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley (February 1990)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201146037
• ISBN-13: 978-0201146035
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,423,609 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars No shortcuts to Organization Transition, March 28, 2000

By 

Gautam Ghosh "voracious reader" (Bangalore, India) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Self Designing Organizations: Learning How to Create High Performance (Addison-Wesley Series on Organization Development) (Paperback)

Creating high performance in the face of relentless environmental change requires an organisation to redesign itself so that it is capable of sustaining efficient, high quality performance through time. The ability and capability to adapt as performance requirements change must be ingrained in the fibre of the organization.

The book contains a lot of case studies that seek to clarify and demystify the practical delineation of what it takes for an organization to self-design. It also looks at the components of the design process: gaining knowledge, determining values and diagnosing the organization. It also touches on the "zero-sum" designing in which the design team starts with a blank slate rather than with an already existing organisation. The book also describes the action learning sequence of implementing, assessing and iterating. This reiterates the need for hedging against uncertainity and stresses innovation.

An important part of the book refers to what transition roles and structures are necessary. One chapter is devoted to the special challenge of self-design that entails large-scale change.

The book targets two primary audiences. The first is line managers, who must know how to lead an organisation through the self design process. The second audience is the change agents-OD professionals, consultants, and facilitators-who are resources to organisations that are redesigning themselves.