Reflections on Groups and Organizations is the third and final book in the On the Couch with Manfred Kets de Vries series. Broadening the Kets De Vries canvas, this book examines concepts of organizational health, performance, and change. Material ranges from studies of high performance teams – based on time the author spent with the pygmies of central Africa – to the study of organizational stars, to the use of coaching interventions to improve personal and organizational functioning. Kets de Vries looks at the interpersonal and group processes that determine how organizations work within specific contexts, including family firms. He studies dysfunctional leader-follower relationships, downsizing, and organizational transformation. Kets de Vries also introduces his concept of the "authentizotic" organization – a pleasant, healthy, well-functioning workplace.

A critical characteristic of human service organizations is their capacity to learn from experience and to adapt continuously to changing external conditions such as downward pressure on resources, constant reconfiguration of the welfare state and rapidly changing patterns of social need. This invaluable, groundbreaking volume discusses in detail the concept of the learning organization, in particular its relevance to social work and social services. Contributors join together from across Europe, North America and Australia to explore the development of the learning organization within social work contexts and its use as a strategic tool for meeting problems of continuous learning, supervision and change. The volume addresses a range of important topics, from strategies for embedding learning and critical reflection in the social work learning organization, to the implications of the learning organization for the new community-based health and social care agenda.

A critical characteristic of human service organizations is their capacity to learn from experience and to adapt continuously to changing external conditions such as downward pressure on resources, constant reconfiguration of the welfare state and rapidly changing patterns of social need. This invaluable, groundbreaking volume discusses in detail the concept of the learning organization, in particular its relevance to social work and social services. Contributors join together from across Europe, North America and Australia to explore the development of the learning organization within social work contexts and its use as a strategic tool for meeting problems of continuous learning, supervision and change. The volume addresses a range of important topics, from strategies for embedding learning and critical reflection in the social work learning organization, to the implications of the learning organization for the new community-based health and social care agenda.

This book is an accessible entry point into the theory and practice of work reflection for students and practitioners. Taking a cross-disciplinary approach, it covers management, education, organizational psychology and sociology, drawing on examples from Europe, the Middle East, North America and Australia. It traces reflection at work from an emphasis on training, through a focus on how organizations learn, to a concern with the necessary learning groups to operate effectively. It emphasizes productivity combined with satisfying lived experience of work life and points the way to a new collective focus on learning at work.

The readings collected in Organizational Sociology are organized so as to direct attention to the six major theoretical traditions which have emerged since the 1960s to guide research and interpretation of organizational structure and performance. The traditions reviewed are: Contingency theory, Resource dependence. Population and Community ecology, Transactions costs economics, Neo-Marxist theory and Institutional Theory. Major statements of each theory are presented together with examples of related empirical research. A concluding section provides examples of recent attempts to combine and integrate two or more of these theories, as analysts attempt to account for some aspects of organization. Rather than pitting one perspective against another, contemporary analysts are more likely to selectively combine elements from several theories in order to better understand the phenomenon of interest.

Serial Innovators: How Individuals Create and Deliver Breakthrough Innovations in Mature Firms zeros in on the cutting-edge thinkers who repeatedly create and deliver breakthrough innovations and new products in large, mature organizations. These employees are organizational powerhouses who solve consumer problems and substantially contribute to the financial value to their firms. In this pioneering study, authors Abbie Griffin, Raymond L. Price, and Bruce A. Vojak detail who these serial innovators are and how they develop novel products, ranging from salt-free seasonings to improved electronics in companies such as Alberto Culver, Hewlett-Packard, and Procter & Gamble. Based on interviews with over 50 serial innovators and an even larger pool of their co-workers, managers and human resources teams, the authors reveal key insights about how to better understand, emulate, enable, support, and manage these unique and important individuals for long-term corporate success. Interestingly, the book finds that serial innovators are instrumental both in cases where firms are aware of clear market demands, and in scenarios when companies take risks on new investments, creating a consumer need. For over 25 years, research on innovation has taken the perspective that new product development can be managed like any other (complex) process of the firm. While a highly structured and closely supervised approach is helpful in creating incremental innovations, this book finds that it is not conducive to creating breakthrough innovations. The text argues that the drive to routinize innovation has gone too far; in fact, so far as to limit many mature firms' ability to create breakthrough innovations. In today's economy, with the future of so many large firms on the line, this book is a clarion call to businesses to rethink how to nurture and thrive on their innovative workforce.

The world of management is in crisis - the old remedies no longer work and organizations are failing at an increasing rate. Although many talk of 'joined up thinking', few offer practical guidance on how to achieve this in organizations. The Fractal Organization sets down the practical implications of a well tested systemic approach to building organizations that are capable of surviving and flourishing in these turbulent times. "An excellent read...Many organizations fail at the mercy of their own ignorance. The author has done an excellent job in making ‘the science of effective organization’ accessible to management, providing them with a new knowledge to deal with the uncertainties that the markets place upon them." Stephen J. Brewis, Business Architect, British Telecom "...one of the most interesting, thorough and rigorous guides to management that I have ever read, ... introduces new insights in every chapter... carries a credibility which acts as a counterbalance to the sometimes difficult message which he conveys which is that a lot of mainstream management practice is at best ineffective and at worst downright destructive. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in management or systems thinking." Penny Marrington, Course Chair, Systems Group, Open University "In my opinion this book manages to present sound academic theory that is relevant and helpful to the practitioner in the business. I experienced several A-HA moments." Pauline Marsh, Strategy Director, CS&S International, BAE SYSTEMS "The insights of the Viable System Model have been open only to a select few for much too long. Hoverstadt has gone furthest in bringing these ideas to a wider audience...Management books have too often been serious but not practical, or practical but not serious. This book is both brilliantly serious and practical, and often entertaining too." Professor Peter Kawalak, Manchester Business School "Integrates mainstream management ideas with the systems ideas underpinning the VSM, and flows and reads well. As a starting point for developing understanding of the VSM in today's world this book improves greatly on all books that have gone before, I would certainly recommend it to colleagues, clients, and students." Dr. Robin Asby, Course Chair, Communication and Systems, Open University