A Brief History of the Organization: from the Dawn of Civilization to Leadership of Today's Corporation

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE ORGANIZATION is a captivating chronology of the thought leaders from Plato to Rousseau, Sir Isaac Newton to Stephen Hawking, Weber to Drucker, McGregor to Peters and Hammer who have identified the fundamental pillars of organization effectiveness and thus have broken the barriers that cause organization gridlock and loss of human commitment. Lynn Bentley highlights their theories and practices plus groundbreaking accomplishments: Levi-Strauss's penetrating insights about the interworkings of prehistoric clans, Immanuel Kant's formulation of a basic scientific method, August Comte's development of Sociology, Elton Mayo's eye-opening discoveries resulting from The Hawthorne Study, Fredrick Herzberg's thought provoking new work model known as Job Enrichment. Weaving centuries of organization evolution with current corporate CEO case studies and the discussion of a highly workable organization effectiveness model, Bentley artfully makes the study of the organization part of the panorama of history. Marcia Dunn, Associated Press, reports that the new shuttle director is leading the change to the NASA environment to insure that workers aren't afraid to voice recommendations or be proactive. The Columbia accident investigators blasted the agency for use of autocratic management methods that created a culture where workers were too afraid to raise issues. Unfortunately, it required the replacement of the two top leaders to set this needed change process in motion. The new program manager was selected to lead the agency because he can nurture and develop a team. Current and past leadership can now look back and trace the slow destructive culture change from the one that existed in the '60s and '70s. Most of the agency team are committed to carry out all 29 recommendations made by the investigators while some still deny that much needs to be fixed. Most of us have witnessed or experienced the fallout