How Healthy Is Your Organization? - (Hardcover)

About the Book

In today's stressful work environment, organizations can be crippled not only by product failures or dramatic market shifts but by internal demons. Typical symptoms of corporate dis-ease include distrust, lack of communication, territoriality, and other negative qualities that fester below the surface and ultimately sap the organization's vitality. But according to these experts in organizational dynamics, it doesn't have to be that way. In truly strong organizations, employees experience joy in performing their tasks and give their utmost to add value and help achieve organizational goals. This provocative book, featuring over fifty case studies, shows how organizations can uncover problems in the corporate culture, root them out, and prosper.

As the authors argue, sustainable profitability, over the long term, is a function of achieving a balance among financial objectives, customer demands, and employee needs. Through numerous examples, case studies, and diagnostic exercises, the authors show managers and employees, as well as students and researchers of organizational behavior, how to identify the sources of organizational disease and focus on promoting a positive, inclusive culture. The end result? Profitability, better employee retention, and a company that's fun to work for.

You will learn how to:

• Understand the causes of negative behavior
• Identify the symptoms of corporate dis-ease
• Measure the impact of these symptoms
• Treat problems
• Create change--for the better.

Book Synopsis

In today's stressful work environment, organizations can be crippled not only by product failures or dramatic market shifts but by internal demons. Typical symptoms of corporate dis-ease include distrust, lack of communication, territoriality, and other negative qualities that fester below the surface and ultimately sap the organization's vitality. But according to these experts in organizational dynamics, it doesn't have to be that way. In truly strong organizations, employees experience joy in performing their tasks and give their utmost to add value and help achieve organizational goals. This provocative book, featuring over fifty case studies, shows how organizations can uncover problems in the corporate culture, root them out, and prosper.

As the authors argue, sustainable profitability, over the long term, is a function of achieving a balance among financial objectives, customer demands, and employee needs. Through numerous examples, case studies, and diagnostic exercises, the authors show managers and employees, as well as students and researchers of organizational behavior, how to identify the sources of organizational disease and focus on promoting a positive, inclusive culture. The end result? Profitability, better employee retention, and a company that's fun to work for.

Review Quotes

"The authors describe the importance of the health of an organization and what factors contribute to it or create disease. They posit that leaders have a role in helping a company thrive and profit and examine the barriers to their personal beliefs to success. They challenge the concept that management is about identifying priorities and producing results quickly and propose that organizational health is about finding a balance among the needs of the customer, organization, and its members. Using examples, they illustrate the characteristics and development of a joyful organization, organizational health criteria (including belongingness, balance in professional and private life, satisfied customers, and minimizing entropy), symptoms of problems, and the role of the executive." --Reference & Research Book News

About the Author

Imre Lövey is managing partner and founder of Concordia, Inc., one of Hungary's first and most prominent management consulting and training firms. He has over twenty-five years of experience in consulting to multinationals, joint ventures, governments, and nongovernmental agencies around the world. He has served as a visiting professor at the Anderson School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles, and is the author of many articles and several book chapters on organizational development and culture.

Manohar Nadkarni was founder and chairman of the Behavioral Science Center in Mumbai, India, where he specialized in organizational development and consulting to multinationals, government agencies, and local communities. He undertook several United Nations missions to promote entrepreneurship programs in developing countries.

Eszter Erdélyi is a management consultant and writer, based in San Francisco.