The Drucker Foundation: The Organization of the Future (J-B Drucker Foundation Series) (Hardcover)

by Frances Hesselbein (Editor), Marshall Goldsmith (Editor), Richard Beckhard (Editor) "I often describe organizational change today as a "journey..." (more)
Key Phrases: miniature business units, chameleon organization, reconfigurable organization, United States, The Body Shop, Southern Company (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
The 49 contributors to this collection?an eclectic mix of executives, academics, management experts and consultants?offer highly accessible, often conversationally written essays intended as thought-provoking goads to action or change in today's business environment. The emphasis is on creating flexible organizational structures that can respond effectively to global competition, information technology, innovation and customers' changing habits. Harvard Business School professor Rosabeth Moss Kanter explores the difficulties of motivating people to work in the downsized, high-pressure corporation. Futurist Joel Barker examines the Mondragon Cooperative, a complex of more than 100 worker-owned enterprises in Spain's Basque Provinces, as a model of entrepreneurship, job creation and worker democracy. James Champy, guru of company reengineering, argues that the larger the scale of a program for change, the more likely it is to succeed. Avoiding platitudes, these wide-ranging essays provide a wealth of innovative thinking on leadership and management strategy. Hesselbein is president of the Drucker Foundation for Nonprofit Management; Goldsmith runs a San Diego corporate consulting firm; organizational consultant Beckhard is a former management professor at MIT.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
In this second in a series sponsored by the Drucker Foundation (The Leader of the Future, Jossey-Bass, 1996), 48 distinguished managers, academics, and writers have contributed highly readable articles on modernizing organizational structures and hierarchies. A unifying theme is that the way managers have divided up work and assigned tasks and resources in organizations must be examined through the lens of customer satisfaction and employee empowerment. Of the many excellent contributions, some that stand out include Joel A. Barker's description of the Mondragon Cooperative in Spain as an example of workplace democracy; Rosabeth Moss Kanter's exhortation to managers to place employees at the heart of any organization design; and Jeffery Pfeffer's review of how America's managers organized in the past. The somewhat academic tone should not prevent the book from being read by those at the helm of today's organizations. Strongly recommended.?Andrea C. Dragon, Coll. of St. Elizabeth, Convent Station, N.J.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 399 pages
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass; 1st edition (December 6, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787903035
• ISBN-13: 978-0787903039
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #548,147 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding views for today and tomorrow., June 12, 2001

By	Turgay BUGDACIGIL (Istanbul, Turkey) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

'The Organization of the Future' is an outstanding integration of much of the current thinking of leadership, organization, strategy, change, and innovation. Frances Hesselbein, Marshall Goldsmith, and Richard Beckhard (editors) have gathered together in this collection remarkable 49 thought thinkers.

Charles Handy suggests in his chapter that "Margaret Wheatley, in 'Leadership and the New Science,' has written of the danger of believing in Newtonian organization in a quantum age. Newton wasn't wrong. He just wasn't right enough to cope with the dilemmas of science now. Similarly, the old way of looking at organizations wasn't wrong; it just does not capture the real essence of what it means to organize today." On the other hand, Peter F.Drucker notes in his introduction, "...now a totaly different approach is emerging, not replacing the older approaches but being superimposed on them: it says that the purpose of organizations is to get results 'outside,' that is, to achieve performance in the market. The organization is, however, more than a machine...It is more than economic, defined by results in the marketplace. The organization is, above all, 'social.' It is people. Its purpose must therefore be to make the strengths of people effective and their weaknesses irrelevant."

In this context, the editors divide this book into six parts. They write in their preface, "throughout the chapters in this book, the need for organizations is unquestioned. The authors provide a variety of forms and operating plans for organizations today and tomorrow; at the same time, each recognizes the indispensable role of organizations to human accomplishment and achievement."

Highly recommended.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT OPTIONS FOR CREATING ORGANIZATIONS THAT ACHIEVE MORE, February 3, 1999

By	Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

THE ORGANIZATION OF THE FUTURE is the best compilation of essays that I have seen on different ways to organize businesses and nonprofits to achieve different kinds of results. The book is full of intriguing questions and choices, and lots of good ideas about how to make the desired changes you select. Anyone who manages people should read this book, and refer to it when effectiveness questions arise. The only thing that seemed to be missing from this book was a "clean slate" approach to organizations, by imagining what has never existed before. That would be an intriguing addition for future editions. The Drucker Foundation has done a real service to us all by creating its series (THE LEADER ..., THE ORGANIZATION ..., and THE COMMUNITY OF THE FUTURE). I hope that a future version will appear on THE MANAGEMENT PROCESSES OF THE FUTURE. That would be an invaluble complement to this outstanding series.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Insightful!, May 14, 2001

By	Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract.com" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Editors Frances Hesselbein, Marshall Goldsmith and Richard Beckhard present a series of short essays by 39 authors describing the structure of tomorrow's organizations. The essays, which are introduced by Peter Drucker, are organized into six main themes: shaping future organizations, new models for working and organizing, organizing for strategic advantage, working and organizing in a wired world, leading people in future organizations and understanding and improving organizational health. Given this approach and more than three dozen authors, some repetition is inevitable, so we [...] wonder if readers will prefer to dip in and choose articles that appeal to them the most. Generally, the book explicates broad trends in structural thinking, almost like a survey of organizational forecasting by top philosophers, authors and leaders in the field. This is sure to intrigue the executives charged with steering large organizations to and through this complex future.