The Ultimate Advantage and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more

Buy New

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
or
Amazon Prime Free Trial required. Sign up when you check out. Learn More
Buy Used
Used - Acceptable See details
$3.59 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
The Ultimate Advantage
 
 
Start reading The Ultimate Advantage on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

The Ultimate Advantage [Hardcover]

Edward E. Lawler III (Author)
3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

List Price: $55.00
Price: $46.47 & this item ships for FREE with Super Saver Shipping. Details
You Save: $8.53 (16%)
  Special Offers Available
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
Only 1 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).
Want it delivered Monday, January 30? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details
Textbook Student FREE Two-Day Shipping for Students. Learn more

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition $41.82  
Hardcover $46.47  

Book Description

1555424147 978-1555424145 January 15, 1992 1
Offers an integrated overview of just how an organization must be designed to realize the full potential of high-involvement management. Details the types of management and reward systems, leadership behaviors, job design, and training programs that make high-involvement organizations really work at such thriving companies as Hewlett-Packard, General Electric, and Xerox. Shows how to implement such specific practices as work teams, skill-based pay, gainsharing, and improvement groups.

Special Offers and Product Promotions

  • Buy $50 in qualifying physical textbooks, get $5 in Amazon MP3 Credit. Here's how (restrictions apply)

Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with Crucial Confrontations: Tools for Resolving Broken Promises, Violated Expectations, and Bad Behavior $10.98

The Ultimate Advantage + Crucial Confrontations: Tools for Resolving Broken Promises, Violated Expectations, and Bad Behavior


Editorial Reviews

Review

"One of the strengths of Lawler's book is its readiness to confront directly the sort of questions that really worry most top managers."

"A valuable reference for human resource specialists, management consultants, and managers in search of a compass. It clearly lays out where many organizations are heading and presents the new wisdom on how to get there."

"A solid, insightful, and instructive book."

From the Inside Flap

Offers an integrated overview of just how an organization must be designed to realize the full potential of high-involvement management. Details the types of management and reward systems, leadership behaviors, job design, and training programs that make high-involvement organizations really work at such thriving companies as Hewlett-Packard, General Electric, and Xerox. Shows how to implement such specific practices as work teams, skill-based pay, gainsharing, and improvement groups.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 347 pages
  • Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1 edition (January 15, 1992)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1555424147
  • ISBN-13: 978-1555424145
  • Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,461,143 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Edward E. Lawler III joined the faculty of Yale University after receiving his Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley in 1964. Three years later he was promoted to Associate Professor.

He moved to the University of Michigan in 1972 as Professor of Psychology and also became Program Director in the Survey Research Center at the Institute for Social Research. In 1978, he became a Professor in the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California. That same year, he founded and became Director of the University's Center for Effective Organizations. He was named Professor of Research at the University of Southern California in 1982 and Distinguished Professor of Business in 1999.

Lawler has been honored as a major contributor to theory, research, and practice in the fields of human resources management, compensation, organizational development, corporate governance, and organizational effectiveness. He is the author and co-author of over thirty-eight books and more than three hundred articles, which have appeared in the Harvard Business Review, MIT-Sloan Management Review, California Management Review, USA Today, Strategy and Business, the Financial Times, and more than thirty other magazines, journals, and newspapers.

His most recent books include Rewarding Excellence (Jossey-Bass, 2000), Corporate Boards: New Strategies for Adding Value at the Top (Jossey-Bass, 2001), Organizing for High Performance (Jossey-Bass, 2001), Treat People Right (Jossey-Bass, 2003), Human Resources Business Process Outsourcing (Jossey-Bass, 2004), Achieving Strategic Excellence: An Assessment of Human Resource Organizations (Stanford Press, 2006), Built to Change (Jossey-Bass, 2006), The New American Workplace (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2006), and America at Work (Palgrave-Macmillan, 2006), Talent: Making People Your Competitive Advantage (Jossey-Bass, 2008), and Achieving Excellence in HR Management: An Assessment of Human Resource Organizations (Stanford Press, 2009) and Management Reset (Jossey-Bass, 2011).

Business Week has proclaimed Lawler one of the top six gurus in the field of management, and Human Resource Executive called him one of HR's most influential people. Workforce magazine identified him as one of the twenty-five visionaries who have shaped today's workplace over the past century. He has been a consultant to many corporations, including the majority of the Fortune 100, as well as governments at all levels.

 

Customer Reviews

3 Reviews
5 star:
 (1)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.7 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Dry and Dated, October 3, 2009
The book covers the basics of employee involvement - from management, leadership, training, compensation, quality and the customer. Unfortunately, it's about 20 years old, and is pretty dry to read. There are some nuggets in here on organizational behavior and structure, as well as plenty of references to significant studies on employee relations that form the foundation for much of modern management theory. Unfortunately the writing style and the age of the material don't make it a compelling read.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


3.0 out of 5 stars Dry and Dated, October 3, 2009
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Ultimate Advantage (Hardcover)
The book covers the basics of employee involvement - from management, leadership, training, compensation, quality and the customer. Unfortunately, it's about 20 years old, and is pretty dry to read. There are some nuggets in here on organizational behavior and structure, as well as plenty of references to significant studies on employee relations that form the foundation for much of modern management theory. Unfortunately the writing style and the age of the material don't make it a compelling read.
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


1 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars On high involvement organizations and their designs..., January 5, 2000
This review is from: The Ultimate Advantage (Hardcover)
Edward E. Lawler III, expone en su libro The Ultimate Advantage: Creating the High Involvement Organization, el siguiente dilema organizacional: ¿Cómo la organización puede competir exitosamente en el ambiente actual de cambios, complejidad, competencia global y diversidad cultural? En otras palabras, ¿Cómo pueden desarrollar y retener ventaja competitiva las organizaciones? La clave segun el autor, para contestar estas interrogantes gira alrededor del aspecto del diseño de la organización (gente, estructura, estilos gerenciales y otros elementos).

Cabe señalar, que sobre este tema varios conocedores han realizado diferentes investigaciones. A saber, David Nadler define el diseño organizacional como "aquel que envolucra decisiones acerca de la configuración de los arreglos de la orgtanización formal, incluyendo estructuras formales, procesos sistemas que conforman una organización. La Meta de los diseñadores, es, por lo tanto, desarrollar e implantar una serie de arreglos o ajustes organizacionales formales los cuales, deben a través del tiempo llevar a congruecias de armonia (fit) entre todas las partes o componentes de la organización: estrategia, trabajo, gente, organizadción formal e informal. (Nadler 1992)

Henry Lucas, Jr. expone que la organización del siglo XXI tendrá que ser mucho más sensible y flexible que la estructura jerárquica. Las organizaciones tendrán que rediseñarse por si mismas o se arriesgarán a desaparecer. Lucas nos presenta el concepto de tecnología para diseñar o rediseñar las organizaciones de este nuevo milenio.(lucas 1996).

Edward E. Lawler III, nos expone el trasfondo histórico del siglo que acaba de terminar, en el cual se desempeñaron las organizaciones que tuvieron éxito a partir de la segunda guerra mundial. NOs presenta a su vez, las fuentes o recursos que le dieron sus puntos fuertes o ventaja competitiva. Los factores que permitieron ganar esta ventaja fueron: un sistema de educación superior, acceso a capital o poder adquisitivo como consecuencia del alto nivel de riqueza, excelentes infraestructuras y medios de comunicación, ayudas gubernamentales y gerentes muy bien preparados en términos educacionales. Muchas de estas ventajas desaparecieron durante la década del 1970 al 1980 con la llegada de los mercados globales, la competencia de otros países/los acuerdos económicos entre países, y el surgimiento de mayores riquezas que permitieron la adquicisión capital, mayores poderes adquisitivos, así como la adquisición de mejor e innovadora tecnología.

En este libro, Lawler presenta como una "útima ventaja competitiva" para las organizaciones, un nuevo modelo o enfoque gerencial, diseñado hacia el compromiso e involucrazión del empleado. A modo de comparar este nuevo enfoque con el tradicional, Lawler ïndica que la mayoría de las empresas utilizan el enfoque orientado hacia el control. Este modelo tradicional, es burocrático, mecánico y jerárquico. Se caracteriza por la simplicación de la tarea, la estandarización del trabajo y el alto grado de especialización. Este modelo, se basa en el supuesto de que la jerarquía y la relación vertical son las formas de asegurar que el trabajo se realice de manera productiva y de alta calidad.

La diferencia relevante de ambos enfoques recae en cómo está organizado y administrado el trabajo en las esferas bajas de la organización. En el modelo orientado al control, el poder, la información, el conocimiento y la recompensa estan centrados en la alta gerencia (en los niveles altos de la organización). la alta gerencia es la que planifica, dirige, coordina y controla). El rol del empleado es pasivo. En el modelo/enfoque de orientación al alto grado de involucrazión o alto compromiso, el poder, la información, el conocimiento y las recompensas se extienden a los niveles bajos. El rol de los individuos, es por lo tanto mas proactivo. Pueden ejercer auto-control, auto-dirección, y añadir valor a los productos y servicios utilizando no solo sus manos, sino tambien sus mentes, sus destrezas intelectuales (su creatividad y el sentido de innovación y espirítu emprendedor).

Recomiendo el libro altamente. Lawler cree que su enfoque puede proveerle una ventaja competitiva a muchas organizaciones, más allá de las que están disponibles en el enfoque piramidal, orientado al control, calidad total y otros parecidos que han sido expuestos en este "review", citamos a Lawler, 1992.

Este enfoque a mi mejor entender, proveera ventajas competitivas a las organizaciones como las nuestras, que se caracterizan por la diversidad cultural, democracia, comportamiento hacia el emprendedurismo, y enfocadas a la filosofía ética de responsabilidad social, y el respeto a la dignidad humana.

En conclusión, Lawler--indica que el estilo gerencial y el enfoque que las organizaciones utilicen para organizarce puede ser su clave al éxito o al fracaso. El reto de toda organización estará, concluimos, en encontrar un estilo gerencial que les ayude a atraer y retener los mejores y mas aptos recursos humanos que armonicen con los valores culturales de los paises donde operan y sus respectivas circumstancias.

Esto, será, segun Lawler a través de la armonía entre los elementos principales de una organización: su gente, la tarea/tecnología, procesos de información, recompensas y la estructura organizacional.

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Only search this product's reviews



Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
Creating an organization in which members feel responsible for and involved in the success of the organization is an attractive and effective approach to management. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
written suggestion programs, traditional work designs, individual job enrichment, job enrichment approach, vertical skills, work team approach, gainsharing plans, plant approach, quality circle programs, individuals throughout the organization, job evaluation systems, enriched jobs, total quality approach, involvement approach
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, General Electric, General Motors, Sun Microsystems, Federal Express, World War, Herman Miller, Skills of the American Workforce, Department of Health, General Accounting Office, United Parcel Service, University of Michigan
New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:




Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   
Related forums


Listmania!


Create a Listmania! list

So You'd Like to...


Create a guide


Look for Similar Items by Category


Look for Similar Items by Subject