Buy Leading Change here, one of 749 Czarist Russia books offered for sale at discount prices here in the history books section at R bookshop. There are currently 86231 history books in our history books section, and over 1,000,000 books listed in our book store. We greatly appreciate your patronage at R bookshop and look forward to offering you a large selection of great books at discount prices now and in the future. Thank you for shopping at R Bookshop!
|
You Are Here: Home > History Books > Czarist Russia > Item 225
|
Leading Change
|
by James O'Toole
Sales Rank: 97810
|
List Price: $15.95
$10.85
At Amazon
on 11-1-2008.
|
|
|
|
Features
Cover Type: Paperback with 304 pages
Published by: Ballantine Books April 2, 1996
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0345402545
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0345402547
Book Dimensions:
8.2 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
Weighs: 9.8 ounces
From Library Journal
O'Toole's book is stronger in its parts than in its sum. The author, vice president of the Aspen Institute, offers some practical wisdom about leadership, derived in large part from the lessons to be learned from the lives of the figures carved on Mt. Rushmore; other, more recent "corporate Rushmoreans"; and the writings of such thinkers as management guru Peter Drucker, British industrialist Robert Owen, and English philosopher John Stuart Mill. But these are simply insights scattered throughout the pages for the reader to glean rather than elements of a strong, clear, readily identifiable thesis. Some valuable things are said, but the premises tend to be generalizations about generalizations, often specific in illustration but vague in pattern. Interesting in places but not essential.?A.J. Anderson, GSLIS, Simmons Coll., Boston
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
From Booklist
Held up as exemplary in a decade that's desperately seeking a new order for business, in case history after case history of corporations and their executives, are usually names like Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry's, Anita Roddick of the Body Shop, and even Jack Welch of GE. But those models just will not work anymore, says professor, consultant, and award-winning author O'Toole. Instead, he uses examples from art, history, philosophy, and, yes, occasionally business to probe the answers to three questions: Why do organizations resist change? How can leaders effect change? What should the leadership philosophy be to most effectively (and morally) induce organizational change? He concludes that a values-based leadership is the only way to pull (not push) change; that change challenges the psychological comfort of the powerful--hence, the basis for resistance; and that imposing new values and new visions will work only if leaders create followers. A thoughtful essay, not a how-to manual, that will most likely spark discomfort among legions of American managers. Barbara Jacobs
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
Reader Reviews
This review is from: Leading Change: Overcoming the Ideology of Comfort and the Tyranny of Custom (Jossey Bass Business and Management Series) (Hardcover)
It is extremely difficult to overcome what James O'Toole calls "the ideology of comfort and the tyranny of custom." In Leading Change, he explains why. Organizations and their leaders must not simply change to accommodate new realities; they must transform themselves effectively. According to O'Toole, "today's executives believe they are struggling with an unprecedented leadership challenge to create internal strategic unity within a chaotic external environment....Executives know what needs to be done and even how to do it. Nonetheless, they are unable to lead change effectively. Explaining the sources of this paradox and offering a practical way to resolve it are the purposes of this book." Leading Change is divided into two parts within which O'Toole addresses three separate but related questions: 1. What are the causes of resistance to change? 2. How can leaders effectively and morally overcome that resistance? 3. Why is the dominant philosophy of leadership, based on contingency theory, neither an effective nor a moral guide for people who wish to lead change? For O'Toole, values-based leadership is provided by those he calls "Rushmoreans": They possess courage, authenticity, integrity, vision, passion, conviction, and persistence. To vary degrees, "Rushmoreans" listen to others, encourage dissenting opinion among their closest advisers, grant ample authority to their subordinates, and lead by example rather than by fiat, manipulation, or coercion. Granted, history produces very few Washingtons, Jeffersons, Lincolns, and Roosevelts. Nonetheless, according to O'Toole, there is much of value to learned from them by those who struggle with "an unprecedented leadership challenge to create internal strategic unity within a chaotic external environment...." In Part One, O'Toole explains why values-based leadership is more effective than any other, notably "tough" or "amoral" leadership which is frequently (and inaccurately) characterized as being "realistic." For O'Toole, democratic leadership "is not about voting; it is about the democratic value of inclusion. There is nothing oxymoronic, chaotic, or ineffective about leadership based on that moral principle." In Part Two, O'Toole shifts his attention to followers inorder to discover why we all resist change that would be in our self-interest to embrace, and, why followers so often resist the leadership they claim to crave. For O'Toole, Shakespeare had it right when explaining resistance to change: "The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars/But in ourselves." In Chapter 7, O'Toole briefly examines 33 of the most popular hypotheses concerning the root causes of resistance. They include the usual suspects: homeostasis (i.e. change is unnatural), stare decisis (i.e. status quo is preferable), inertia (i.e. difficulty of altering course), self-interest (i.e. What's in it for me?), and fear (i.e. of unknown). Of course, there are exceptions to each of the 33; also, all are never present in the same situation; moreover, no single one can fully account for all forms of resistance to change. Peter Drucker asks a very important question: "What is the environment ready for? One has to do it [i.e. seek change] at the right time." Hence the importance of timing as well as of having all of the Rushmorean values. But together, they are still insufficient if (for whatever reasons) there are no followers. In Chapter 9, O'Toole discusses J. Edwards Deming inorder to illustrate this "curious and troubling" aspect of human behavior: "...reasonable men and women often resist acting on social knowledge which will advance their collective self-interest." How ironic that Deming's managerial principles and methods which were so effective in helping the U.S. and its Allies to defeat the Japanese during World War II were then rejected by American industry but refined and and employed by the Japanese to dominate world markets. Then and only then were Deming and his managerial methods embraced by American industry in desperation to learn the "secrets of Japanese management." In Chapter 10, O'Toole shifts his attention to Robert Owen (1771-1858) whose "paternalistic" treatment of his own employees earned an immense personal fortune for him. Meanwhile, however, he was widely reviled for mollycoddling the workforce (and thus not creating even greater profits) or for being a manipulative capitalist "in the government's pay." Alas, as O'Toole notes, "Owen never learned how to overcome the deeply rooted resistance to change, a skill that is a prime characteristic of great moral leadership." As a result, "humanity suffered for nearly a century from that singularly consequential flaw of one of history's gentlest souls." In the final two chapters of Leading Change, O'Toole examines what he calls "the despotism of custom" and "the ideology of comfort." Anyone in any organization (regardless of size or nature) who has attempted to be a change leader is already familiar with both. The question remains, how to overcome them? Everything which precedes these two final chapters creates a frame-of-reference within which O'Toole correlates and galvanizes his key points. Obviously, he fully understands why there is such great resistance to change. Also, he fully understands why visionaries such as Robert Owen fail to attract the support they need. He concludes this brilliant book with a rejection of leadership by command, manipulation, or paternalism...insisting once again that only value-based leadership can be both moral and effective. "Once a leader makes that commitment, all the other pieces will eventually fall into place, bit by bit."
Back To Top
|
Leading Change
Available from Amazon
Price: $10.85
Updated on 11-1-2008.
|
NOTICE: All prices, availability, and specifications
are subject to verification by their respective retailers.
| We offer Leading Change and other related Czarist Russia Books here at Rbookshop.com. To view more books about Czarist Russia please use the previous and next buttons near the top of this page.
|
|
Search for books at
