Showing posts with label organizational behavior. Show all posts
Showing posts with label organizational behavior. Show all posts

The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion Review

The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion
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The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion ReviewJohn Hagel, John Seely Brown and Land Davison (HSBD) have written a good book with strong views on the future nature of enterprises and their relationship to individuals. The Power of Pull is one of the most comprehensively thought out books on the subject of social media and the future of the enterprise to have come out. It goes way beyond the buzzword or branding driven works that concentrate more on staking out territory than investigating the future of companies, individuals and technology.
This is not a technology book, in fact it is more about the theory of the individual, their value and the impact of that value on companies. Hagel and Seely Brown's central premise is that "institutions will be shaped to provide platforms to help individual achieve their full potential by connecting with others and better addressing challenging performance needs" page 8. This is a distinctively different view form others who see the future of social computing as one of communities or collectives taking action. Hagel, Seely Brown and Davison then go on to discuss such an environment as one of "pull" with three basic principles
*Finding and accessing people and resources we need
*Having the ability to attach people and resources to yourself that are relevant and valuable
*Pull from within ourselves the indicate and performance required to achieve our potential
Now you can combine the quote and the points above and think this is a book at the cross roads between an academic researcher and Tony Robbins. This book is anything but. I have tremendous respect for this duo and they along with Davison have delivered a comprehensive and thoughtful book on a complex subject.
Hagel, Seely Brown and Davison see pull concentrating on the innovation and new ideas that come from the people on the edge, those who are experimenting and pushing the envelope. They use the example of large wave surfing to illustrate that people working on the edge of their profession deploy sophisticated tools and communications patterns to make breakthroughs.
Creating breakthroughs is an integral part of competing in the future and therefore something that companies need to get better at. That is where the individual fits into their argument, they can engage the edge, learn more, build the relationships that bring the best of the edge into their creation spaces that allows them to leverage themselves in the corporation. It is an interesting premise and one that the authors illustrate through several `mavens'
I recommend this book in general and particularly the introduction and first chapter to business leaders who want a different view on the future and social media. Lately there are few books that I have highlighted or taken notes in the margins as much as I have with this one. There are a few strong ideas, well presented and discussed.
Strengths.
*The introduction - among the best and clearest I have ever read. It lays out the issues and scope of the book in a way that helps you figure out where to concentrate your attention as you read.
*The blending of business activities with technology as the book talks about the importance of platforms rather than applications and how enterprises will operate and compete more on platforms than products or market positions.
*Anti-hype, this is a serious look at the future without the platitudes about the net generation or how all our skills and what we know will be rendered irrelevant. In fact it is much the opposite.
*A rich blend of academic and engineering approaches to the issues that make for deep treatment of the issues.
Challenges
*The book gets repetitive at times particularly as it talks through the three aspects of pull. It often relies on the same story that can lead to it becoming worn and overused. The reliance on three or four cases does provide depth, but no one case can fit all of these ideas, reducing the effectiveness of the examples.
*The two major examples are non-business examples that are fun to read, but challenging to see how it applies to me. It was great to learn about surfing and the world of warcraft but real companies are applying these ideas and it would have been better to hear about them.
*The book has more than its share of jargon and in an engineering/academic style this makes reading it a little harder than it should. Jargon includes: push, pull, edge, creative spaces, big shift and shaping strategies to name a few. This is where the consultant-ese gets in the way.
*The emphasis and contrast between push and pull is stark and needs to be for literary purposes. However much of the economy and much of our work will remain heavily push influenced even when we are all knowledge workers. Building that bridge is the bigger challenge than saying 'all smart people go be self actualizing.'
Finally, this book is a Deloitte developed book and the authors are all associated with Deloitte. The authors have done a great job in not writing a book about why you should buy pull based consulting services. While the authors have done a nice job in maintaining or presenting their ideas independently, they have a business basis that the reader should take into consideration. Still recommended, but the ideas are big, the presentation comprehensive so you will need to pull on your thinking cap and take the time to reflect on what is in this book. Enjoy.The Power of Pull: How Small Moves, Smartly Made, Can Set Big Things in Motion Overview

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Being the Boss: The 3 Imperatives for Becoming a Great Leader Review

Being the Boss: The 3 Imperatives for Becoming a Great Leader
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Being the Boss: The 3 Imperatives for Becoming a Great Leader ReviewSooner or later most managers realize that becoming an effective manager is an enormous challenge and taking a management course is not sufficient preparation, according to Linda Hill and Kent Lineback in this book. Considerable personal change is required for a competent employee to become a skilled manager, and this includes acquiring the necessary skills, knowledge, values, outlook, self-knowledge, judgment and emotional competence.
A manager is responsible for the performance of a group of people, and this means the manager must influence not only what they do, but also the thoughts and feelings that drive their actions. There are many paradoxes in what managers must do, including:
*You are responsible for what others do
*To focus on the work, you must focus on the people doing the work
*You must both develop your people and evaluate them
*You must make your group a cohesive team without losing sight of the individuals on it
*To manage your group, you must manage the larger context beyond your group
*You must do some harm in order to do a greater goodThe manager's "3 imperatives" referred to in the title of the book are: manage yourself, manage your network, and manage your team. The bulk of the book is taken up describing ways in which these imperatives can be achieved. The authors help to make their theoretical advice concrete by using part of a fictional case study at the start of each chapter, illustrating a range of problems encountered by a technically competent individual who has recently been promoted to a managerial position.
Two key insights I gleaned from the book were the author's view of the difference between a boss-employee relationship and a friend-friend relationship, and the returns that can be gained by cultivating a network of relationships inside and outside the organization. The boss-employee relationship works best as a cordial, genuinely caring relationship, but the primary goal is to do the work; bosses and direct reports are not equals, and a boss has to evaluate direct reports. While most people appreciate the importance of a network of relationships to personal career success, the authors point out that the success of a manager within an organization depends on securing the right resources for his or her team, and this requires gaining and exercising political power, which is done through relationships.
The book contains a number of self-assessment questions. These types of questions are often assess the reader's vanity more effectively than the reader's ability, but they do provide a helpful list of attributes that a manager needs to work on. New managers will find this book a great help when navigating unfamiliar territory, and even well-seasoned managers will find plenty of useful insights for their continuing leadership journey.Being the Boss: The 3 Imperatives for Becoming a Great Leader Overview

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Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics Review

Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics
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Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics ReviewMargaret Keck and Kathryn Sikink's "Activists Beyond Borders" is almost certainly the most significant book yet to have appeared on the role of activist networks in shaping global politics. It's a joy to read, theoretically rich but never overly dense, and it's also inspiring -- probably why it received the prestigious Grawemeyer World Order Award. The introduction, on "Transnational Advocacy Networks in International Politics," would make an excellent reading for a graduate course on International Relations theory. But the same could be said for almost every chapter in the book. The case-studies build upon the prior research of both authors to present fascinating overviews of the evolution of activist networks in the fields of human rights, the environment, and violence against women. In each instance, the authors are careful to include examples of networks that did *not* crystallize in certain issue-areas, and to explain why some endeavours succeeded while others failed (or were less successful). While the book will be of considerable interest to I.R. scholars, it should also be read by activists, who will learn a great deal about how to maximize their reach and influence.Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in International Politics Overview

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The Emotionally Intelligent Team: Understanding and Developing the Behaviors of Success Review

The Emotionally Intelligent Team: Understanding and Developing the Behaviors of Success
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The Emotionally Intelligent Team: Understanding and Developing the Behaviors of Success ReviewMarcia Hughes and James Terrell truly understand what it takes to develop emotional intelligence in groups. This is a magnificent tool for Coaches, Team Building Practitioners and Leaders who work with teams. The Seven Step approach is insightful, easily understood and a tool that would deliver results. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to maximize the performance of teams.
William B. Sutherland, ACC MBA MAOD PMP, President of the Sutherland Group, Executive Coaching, Leadership Development and Management ConsultingThe Emotionally Intelligent Team: Understanding and Developing the Behaviors of Success Overview

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The Social Psychology of Organizations Review

The Social Psychology of Organizations
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The Social Psychology of Organizations ReviewI first read The Social Psychology of Oganizations, by Katz & Kahn, in Spring 1973, as a required reading for Organization Theories Core Course at New York University, Wagner Graduate School Of Public Administration. Based upon my readings and use of this text book for both academic and later business research, I strongly believe that this structurally detailed, powerful and insightful book is a required core, basic studies reading for High School, College, University, Graduate Students and Post Graduate Studies.
The Key Stone to this book is the concept of the Ying, Yang, the polarized interaction,interrelationship(s) of both the Formal and the Informal Organizations within both Public and Private Economy Sector Organizations.
"The formal Goals of the Formal Organization are not necessarily those of the Informal Organization and vice a versa."
This landmark research work by Katz & Kahan, greatly enhances, sensitizes and helps the reader to conceptually organize, catalogue organizations and individuals by both types of organizational hierarchy and types of individuals' characterietics, so that we may more easily deal with both Formal and Informal Organizations and Individuals in a smoother, more rational, less emotional manner.
I teach an Executive Project Managment course in both the Public and Private sectors of the Economy. When teaching Project Management to the US Department of Defense, the US Navy, NAVSEA, I have always recommended the supplemental research use of The Social Psychology of Organizations by Daniel Kats, Robert Louis Kahn, as I do when teaching and consulting within the private sector of the economy.
Katz & Kahan's, The Social Psychology of Organizations, provides the reader with a rich, detailed, structured framework,indeed a structured compartmentalized baseline, against which we can compare multiple types of diversified organizations and multiple types of diversified individuals, as we meet them throughout the lifetime course our public and private lives.
Since a corporation is indeed a Formal Organization, and the corporation is a "Living Entity", then this work allows the reader to understand the diversified (sometimes disfunctional) personalities of the Formal Organization vs. the Informal Organization, corporate culture as they relate to us as the individual having to work and live wihtin their corporate contexts, paramaters and according to their unique set of corporate cultural rules and their respective formal and informal regulations.
From a Psychological perspective, The Social Psychology of Organizations by Katz & Kahan, both fore-warns and fore-arms individuals vis a vis their interactions and inter-relationships with, within large corporations, large social structures and one on one with individuals.
What a true treasure-trove of organizational knowledge, behavior, insights this organizational research really is. This is a timeless piece of organizational research work, as relevent today in 2002, as it was in 1968, 1973 and will be in 2013 and on.
Thank you for the opportunity to review thie fine piece of work.The Social Psychology of Organizations Overview

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Unanticipated Gains: Origins of Network Inequality in Everyday Life Review

Unanticipated Gains: Origins of Network Inequality in Everyday Life
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Unanticipated Gains: Origins of Network Inequality in Everyday Life ReviewGreat book! Mario Small presents a nice multimethod investigation of child care centers in NYC. The appendices are especially useful from a methodological standpoint. He provides informative appendices on both his quantitative and qualitative data as well as a narrative piece about theory construction. Highly recommended.Unanticipated Gains: Origins of Network Inequality in Everyday Life Overview

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Social Networks and Organizations Review

Social Networks and Organizations
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Social Networks and Organizations ReviewMany books have been written about social networks. But few review the research on social networks in organizations.This book by Kilduff and Tsai is one that reviews a vasy body of literature about social networks in organization. Further, readers are gently exposed to key network concepts. Students who would like to learn the mechanics of network analysis and its usage in theory testing can refer to the appendices. For established researchers seeking potential new research questions, this book provides a wealth of interesting research questions. Most books on social networks are techical, hard to grasp and do not establish the relevance of social networks to organizational research. This book is an exception.Social Networks and Organizations Overview

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Exploratory Social Network Analysis with Pajek (Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences) Review

Exploratory Social Network Analysis with Pajek (Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences)
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Exploratory Social Network Analysis with Pajek (Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences) ReviewThis book comes so highly recommended because it lowers all the barriers for the student. The text is easily absorbed, the software is free, and the datasets are there. Many guides on Social Network Analysis (SNA) seem like they are written for someone who already knows how to do SNA. The original Pajek manual is one example (Pajek is pronounced pai-yak). This book is like the missing manual. It guides the novice carefully through the analysis process. The free software, Pajek, is one of the best Social Network programs currently. Although Pajek was initially just for visualizations of large networks, and it still only has a subset of the UCInet functions, the algorithms are fast and plentiful. The book and software should keep a student busy until they add more programmatic SNA tools to their toolkit (e.g. R-project sna).Exploratory Social Network Analysis with Pajek (Structural Analysis in the Social Sciences) Overview

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The Hidden Power of Social Networks: Understanding How Work Really Gets Done in Organizations Review

The Hidden Power of Social Networks: Understanding How Work Really Gets Done in Organizations
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The Hidden Power of Social Networks: Understanding How Work Really Gets Done in Organizations ReviewThe Hidden Power of Social Networks provides the most complete treatment of the subject of applying the understanding of social networks to organizations as you will find. It includes the insights from the many, many cases that the authors facilitated and it provides insight into the methodology itself. As such, it is a good book for both executives who have had inklings that there is something useful for them in all this "social network" hype, and for HR/organizational development specialists and consultants who want to understand the nuts and bolts of the method.
In recent years we saw (and I read) half a dozen books on the emerging science of networks (Linked, Six Degrees of Separation; from the management consulting Nexus, Living Networks); the language of The Tipping Point tipped into the vernacular; and social networking sites (LinkedIn™, tribe.net, Spoke, VisualPath) climbed the "hype cycle" by promising value in gaining access to powerful people just three degrees away. The jury is still out on the latter, but the genie is out of the bottle: organizations and individuals are making the shift to an understanding that social networks shape our lives and our work, and that we can learn how to identify, assess, and manage these networks.
This book is the first fully practical, actionable work on social network analysis in organizations. Cross and Parker are among a handful of professionals who have worked deeply in organizations to analyze existing social networks, position these networks within the context of the strategy, culture, and promise of organizations and recommend specific, positive steps that can alter the dynamics of the networks that exist.
For example, one of the themes explored is that of central connectors: people who, by virtue of their relationships with people in different organizations serve as boundary spanners (moving information and context from one group to another) or bottlenecks (impeding the flow of information and context). The authors develop the reader's understanding of this phenomenon by presenting the concepts of social network mapping, how the analysis of a network reveals the central connectors, the impact of these people on an organization, and, finally, the actions a manager can take to either (1) acknowledge and recognize these people or (2) shift the work patterns to alleviate the bottlenecks.
All the network maps in the book are from real cases - and they are universal as well. You'll not have a difficult time recognizing your own organization (or those you've worked with) in most of these examples. The "before and after" maps are illuminating and inspiring. The descriptions of the methodology are straightforward and useful. I'll say it again: this book is actionable, for both senior managers who want to understand and support networked organizational dynamics and for consultants (internal and external) who want a practical guidebook that establishes the standard for the practice of social network analysis.
Full disclosure: I am a practicing consultant who uses social network analysis in my work. When I first heard Rob Cross talk about social network analysis at an Institute for Knowledge Management workshop in Santa Fe four years ago, I knew that this was work that I needed to do in my organization. I had the good fortune to work with Rob and Andrew Parker on several projects, and to learn the method described in this book from them. I inherited, through their teaching and mentoring, the enthusiasm for bringing stunning insights to managers about their organizations as revealed in an analysis of their networks, and a strong sense of the ethics and responsibility in managing analysis projects. I've been waiting almost a year for this book to come out so that I can share it with my clients.The Hidden Power of Social Networks: Understanding How Work Really Gets Done in Organizations Overview

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