"This Isn't the Company I Joined": Seven Steps to Energizing a Restructured Work Force [Hardcover]

Carol Kinsey Goman Ph.D. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 26, 1997

"This Isn’t the Company I Joined" Seven Steps to Energizing a Restructured Work Force Carol Kinsey Goman "What Really Happens When Your Company Reorganizes … And How to Fix It! The big change is over. Employees feel secure, management is seen as caring and aware, the boardroom is viewed as credible and inspired, and the "big change" has been a resounding success. And if you really believe this, you badly need this book! More likely, the work force is confused and demoralized and managers have the uneasy feeling that something is terribly wrong. But all is not lost, thanks to the outspoken analysis and real-life solutions found in this look at the human side of change. Advance Praise for "This Isn’t the Company I Joined" "Goman has captured the key elements that we are facing world. Those who keep up will do very well and others, I’m afraid, will be passed over." —Charles Lynch, Chairman, fresh Choice Inc. "This is a book for people who have arrived as well as those just starting. Carol Kinsey Goman has written a ‘must read’ for anyone involved in leadership." —Robert L. Dilenschneider, CEO, The Dilenschneider Group "This is an outstanding book on the topic of managing corporate change. This book provides a compelling rationale for capturing the hearts and souls, in additions to the minds, of employees. And I agree — this is the single biggest factor for business in today’s fast paced, always changing, competitive market." —Karen L. Hendricks, Chairman, President & CEO, Baldwin Piano & Organ Company "Change’s best friend is this book. Carol Kinsey Goman has produced a highly enjoyable and informative book about organizational change, loyalty, and the challenges of transformation." —Lee Hornick, Program Director, The Conference Board "Having recently gone through a fairly sizable restructuring ourselves, I read with a great deal of interest Goman’s steps to energizing a restructured work force. For any organization facing the kind of challenges we do, her approach to creating a ‘change-adept’ employee base is well thought out,completely practical, and well supported by examples of its successful implementation." —Vasu R. Devan, Chairman and CEO, MECON, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 242 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (September 26, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471292621
• ISBN-13: 978-0471292623
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,392,614 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D., is an executive coach and international keynote speaker and seminar leader for corporations, associations and government agencies.

Body language has always played a key role in Carol's professional life. Prior to founding Kinsey Consulting Services, she was a therapist in private practice -- reading nonverbal cues to help her clients make rapid and profound behavioral changes. As a coach, Carol helps leaders build powerful and effective business relationship by using verbal and nonverbal communication that projects confidence, credibility, and empathy.

Carol has an extensive background in organizational "people issues." She's published over 300 articles in the fields of organizational change, leadership, communication, the multi-generational work force, collaboration, employee engagement, and body language in the workplace. An upbeat and entertaining guest, Carol's been featured in media including NPR's Marketplace, CNN's Business Unusual, Investor's Business Daily, Executive Excellence, ABC's "The View From the Bay," Forbes.com, and the NBC Nightly News. She is a Human Resource columnist for Troy Media and an "On Leadership" panelist for The Washington Post.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Energizing employees and engaging their enthusiasm, February 6, 2001

By 

Turgay BUGDACIGIL (Istanbul, Turkey) - See all my reviews

This review is from: "This Isn't the Company I Joined": Seven Steps to Energizing a Restructured Work Force (Hardcover)

"This book points out the seven steps leaders can take in an effort to energize a restructured work force. They will need to learn new management strategies based on ideas about human resources that may never have occurred to them before. They will have to abandon the old corporate paradigms and accept the fact that business today is a whole new kind of ball game. And above all, they will have to find means to bring the work force as individuals, as human beings, back to the center of corporate strategy-because corporate survival in this chaotic, ever-changing, new business world of ours is going to rely crucially on the commitment, enthusiasm, talent, and creative contributions of every single employee from top to bottom of the organization" (from the Introduction).

In this context, throughout the book Carol Kinsey Goman examines these seven steps in detail, and summarizes them and their basic principles as following:

1. Examine changing realities

* Communicate to employees the forces of change affecting markets, competition, and their jobs.

* Acknowledge the changes in needs and values of the work force.

2. Adopt the new business paradigm

* Identify the changing paradigm for science and organizations.

* Exploit instability as the opportunity for positive transformation.

3. Develop a change-adept work force

* Expand employees' skills to help them thrive on change instead of fearing it.

* Develop management practices that promote change-adeptness throughout the organization.

4. Lead discontinuous change

* Be prepared not just to manage but to lead transformation.

* Build emotional literacy in yourself and in your work force.

5. Develop the core of leadership

* Become the change you want to see in others: Lead by example.

* Transform yourself from manager to leader.

6. Renegotiate the compact between employers and employees

* Recognize the powerful potential of shared commitment.

* Move from paternalizm to partnership.

7. Liberate work force potential

* Eliminate obstacles to creative collaboration.

* Rely on human potential as central to your corporate strategy.

Finally, she writes that "With one exception, success in today's global economy boils down to the single, universally recognized issue of getting more for less. The exception is human resources. The potential of an organization lies within each individual and within the connections between individuals. Human labor is no longer a disposable commodity. It is a unique creative resource for the future of the organization. You can trim production costs, speed up communications, reduce delivery times, cut corners on marketing and promotion...But you can't switch workers off and expect to come out ahead. If you give people less, they give less back. If you treat them like underlings, they behave like underlings. Offer them more, on the other hand, and they'll repay you with interest. I'm not talking about money now. I'm talking about liberating untapped potential, about energizing employees and engaging their enthusiasm."

Highly recommended.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars But this is the book I needed, January 12, 2000

By 

CPNO (formerly New Orleans, LA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: "This Isn't the Company I Joined": Seven Steps to Energizing a Restructured Work Force (Hardcover)

Literally peppered with case histories, this book is practical. It helps provide management with examples that make a case, using many companies they will recognize. While so much data is conceptual or theoretical, this is a nuts and bolts primer on organizational improvement. Informative and loaded with common sense.

0 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Upside is exciting, February 28, 2004

By 

Christopher B. Raczka (Boston, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: "This Isn't the Company I Joined": Seven Steps to Energizing a Restructured Work Force (Hardcover)

Employee Motivation is a FRAGILE art!
How's that for insight.

Include employees in the strategy development process!
Another gem.

This book makes for interesting reading at Starbucks
but is no where near corporate reality!

In the down economy since 1999 employees have been abused
and taken for granted only to have more demands on them
and less salary/bonuses/stock options available.

The majority of salary adjustments DO NOT even keep up with
the cost of living.