Organisational theory and behaviour Books

Don't fly blind. See how the power of experiments works for you.When it comes to improving customer experiences, trying out new business models, or developing new products, even the most experienced managers often get it wrong. They discover that...

Leaders know that their job is to lead transformation to keep pace with technology and an ever-changing business environment. They also know that they are bound to fail doing so. But not because they can't solve a technology or strategy problem. They...

Our organisations are failing us. They're sluggish, change-phobic, and emotionally arid. Human beings, by contrast, are adaptable, creative, and full of passion. This gap between individual and organisational capability is the unfortunate by-product of...

Poll after poll has confirmed that an astonishing number of workers are disengaged from their work. Why is this happening? And how can we fix the problem?In this bold, enlightening book, social psychologist and professor Daniel M. Cable takes leaders...

Most executives have a big, hairy, audacious goal. They write vision statements, formalize procedures, and develop complicated incentive programs-all in pursuit of that goal. In other words, with the best of intentions, they install layers of stultifying...

Peter F. Drucker argues that what underlies the current malaise of so many large and successful organizations worldwide is that their theory of the business no longer works. The story is a familiar one: a company that was a superstar only yesterday finds...

In thirty years of working in corporations, Michael Beer has witnessed how organisational silence has derailed many a strategic objective. When lower-level employees in the organisation can't speak truth to power, senior leaders don't hear what they need...

Most executives will lead or be a part of a reorganization (a "reorg"). And for good reason-reorgs are one of the best ways for companies to unlock latent value, especially in a changing business environment. But everyone hates them. Perhaps no other...

Business leaders know that the key to competitive success is smart management of scarce resources. That's why companies allocate their financial capital so carefully. But capital today is cheap and abundant, no longer a source of advantage. The truly...

It's a manager's job to make the tough calls, but the hardest part of being a manager is resolving those "gray areas"-situations where analysis of the numbers, facts, and data fails to provide a clear answer. These gray areas test not only a manager's...

Whether you're hosting a conference call or running a WebEx meeting, virtual meetings are ripe for problems. Poor call quality, people forgetting to mute, people staying muted rather than participating-the list of things that can and do go wrong...

Manage your team from anywhere.Leading any team involves managing people, technical oversight, and project administration, but leaders of virtual teams perform these functions from afar. Leading Virtual Teams walks you through the basics of:Connecting...

Teams are the key to top performance. It's long been known that teams, more so than single individuals and large groups, are the best at solving complex problems and delivering results. Great teams enabled Motorola to build the lightest, smallest, and...

Dysfunctional teams are maddening-yet are a reality of organizational life. How often have you sat in team meetings complaining to yourself, "What a colossal waste of time. Why does it take forever for this group to make a simple decision? What are we...

As individual workers become more entrepreneurial-managing their own careers, jumping from job-to-job and assembling their own distinctive professional narratives-the burden is now on managers to keep an organization running. The Alliance addresses this...

The 20th anniversary edition ofNow, Discover Your Strengthscomes with an access code to the Clifton StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment. This updated assessment includes reports and resources that go far beyond the standardized reports of the older assessment...

How organizations developed in history, how they operate, and how research on them has evolvedOrganizations are all around us: government agencies, multinational corporations, social-movement organizations, religious congregations, scientific bodies,...

How one global organization's lingua franca mandate shaped the lives of its employees around the worldFor nearly three decades, English has been the lingua franca of cross-border business, yet studies on global language strategies have been scarce...

We do business in a results-oriented world. Our focus on growth is laudable for its clarity, but one of its downsides is that firms can lose sight of the process: how business gets done and the individuals or employees through whom results are achieved...

There's a scene in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass in which the Red Queen, having just led a chase with Alice in which neither seems to have moved from the spot where they began, explains to the perplexed girl: "It takes all the running you can...

Americans are taught to believe that upward mobility is possible for anyone who is willing to work hard, regardless of their social status, yet it is often those from affluent backgrounds who land the best jobs. Pedigree takes readers behind the closed...

Honeybees make decisions collectively - and democratically. Every year, faced with the life-or-death problem of choosing and traveling to a new home, honeybees stake everything on a process that includes collective fact-finding, vigorous debate, and...

In this book, strategy expert and Columbia Business School professor Rita McGrath takes on one of most fundamental and recognized notions in strategy: that of sustainable competitive advantage. She argues this can no longer be the Holy Grail for...

Most people feel at odds with their organizations at one time or another: Managers with families struggle to balance professional and personal responsibilities in often unsympathetic firms. Members of minority groups strive to make their organizations...

Richard Hackman, one of the world's leading experts on group and organizational behavior, argues that teams perform at their best when leaders create conditions that allow them to manage themselves effectively.Leading Teams is not about subscribing to a...

Is your firm's board creating value-or destroying it? Change is coming. Leadership at the top is being redefined as boards take a more active role in decisions that once belonged solely to the CEO. But for all the advantages of increased board...

Three experts in Human Resources introduce a measurement system that convincingly showcases how HR impacts business performance. Drawing from the authors' ongoing study of nearly 3,000 firms, this book describes a seven-step process for embedding HR...

In Immunity to Change, authors Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey show how our individual beliefs - along with the collective mind-sets in our organisations - combine to create a natural but powerful immunity to change. By revealing how this mechanism holds us...

If strategy is about creating a competitive advantage that allows a firm to win, then pinpointing your strategy to a few critically important choices will dramatically increase your chances of success. This is especially true in the volatile and complex...

Millions worldwide have read and embraced John Kotter's ideas on change management and leadership-and Leading Change, his seminal work, is widely recognized as the bible on leading transformational change. Needed more today than any time in the past,...

Accelerate, from bestselling author John P. Kotter (Leading Change, A Sense of Urgency, Our Iceberg Is Melting), offers a detailed explanation of his award-winning idea on a new "dual operating system" that allows organizations to move at the pace of...