Fail

This book showed me what to do if my child uses alcohol. Since it happened, I've used the step-by-step guide and got some help. I'm deeply grateful. I've prayed and I hope other parents will read this book. Jan

"This book has centered on the concept and process of discovering and maintaining fit-strategic fit between the organization and its environment and internal fit among strategy, structure, and management processes. Fit, we have argued, is not merely important; it is crucial. With fit comes fame, with misfit comes failure...We have shown that fit is a simple concept but not a simple process. To achieve strategic fit, organizations must create, understand, develop, and sustain a distinctive competence that adds high value to goods or services the market desires...The obvious lesson here is the same one we have been emphasizing throughout this book. In the competitive world of today and tomorrow, competencies must be investment-based. They must rest on the sustained investment of money and time, which build ever-increasing skills and know-how as well as the capability to use them to their fullest (pp. 186-199)."

In this context R. Miles and C. Snow :

* discuss concept of fit.

* describe the external fit between the firm and its environment, and the internal fit of organization structure, management systems, and managerial ideology to a chosen strategy.

* discuss the companies (such as Carnegie Steel, GM, Sears, Roebuck, HP, and TRW) that pioneered the major organizational forms that have appeared over the past hundred years or so.

* discuss today's successful companies (such as GE, Wal-Mart, and Rubbermaid).

* discuss organizational failure and its major causes, identifying two generic types of failure.

* introduce and explore in detail the network organization and its three main variations : the stable, dynamic, and internal network as the 21st century's organization model.

* discuss mechanisms by which required fit is achieved at all three levels of the network form : across the entire network organization, among network firms in activated organizations, and within each of the specific network firms (such as Nike, Dell, Novell, and ABB).

* identify the forces pushing managers toward a new philosophy of management (human investment model).

* discuss companies that are struggling to redesign themselves-cutting costs, downsizing, bringing in new management teams, and so on.

* describe how total redesign may grow more costly in today's fast-paced world.

* illustrate that fit is no longer an idealistic "ought" but an economic "must"-not only within the firm but throughout the network form and the total global economy.

Detailed discussion of the concepts like technological change, cellular units, networks, network of alliances, interorganizational teamwork, spherical organization, shared knowledge see also William Halal's "The Infinite Resource (1998)", and "The New Management (1998)".

I highly recommend this "must" reading study.

Combining scholarship and compassion, the authour writes with a prophectic voice a message that is sobering and disturbing. no matter what our conclusion maybe we are forced to realize that as christians not only have we offered the world our salvation-message but also our idols. in the conculding chapter we are led to foot of the cross where we meet a God who came to serve and not be served and we understand it is here we recive our commission to be his wittness. anybody who is passionate about jesus, his message and his mission must read this book.

The authors have done an excellent job of examing the medias shortcomings and proposing solutions. The new knowledge will serve journalists, political scientists and the public well in the years to come.

Keep it simple stupid.Thats what they taught me at college.Simplify the problem.Complicate the problem.Draw an obscure diagram.Simple advice but good advice.
But you don't believe you are stupid.You are angry that somebody called you stupid. You may be just the right person for this book.Because a smart man acknowledges that he really knows very little.Because he wants to read every book in the library.And there is so little time.So you are like that.You don't really need this book.
It is the guy who doesn't want to be called stupid that will need it. You will learn how smart kids think about college and the tricks they use.And the ones they don't.It is all about college in the 1980's before the internet.
Because study is something you can learn without complicating it by using a computer.Learn all of the mistakes you could possibly make and how to avoid making them.

Laughing out loud (while alone) is a sure indication that this small book is a winner. Hilarious is definately the adjective needed to describe the contents; the everyday trials of motherhood and the manner in which Murphy presents every detail. She seems to be a female Dave Berry/Erma Bombeck cross. The latter would be rolling on the floor with hilarity if she were to read this!

On the back of this book is a short endorsement: "This is social science that matters." Fairly innocuous, I'm sure you'll agree. Yet it wasn't the quotation that caught my eye: rather the name of the endorser, one M. Pierre Bourdieu. As anyone familiar with his work will know, Bourdieu - currently the world's leading sociologist - does not endorse books, because (he argues) to do so is to play the 'back-slapping' and unmistakeably self-interested game of citations and counter-endorsements which makes or breaks today's academic careers. So why, then, does the ascetically-principled high priest of Sociology deign to break the habit of a lifetime for this unassuming work? The simple answer is: it really is that good. This is the first work of social theory/methodology for a long time which actually made me enthusiastic about the future of the social sciences outside the insulated groves of academia. By re-inventing the Aristotelian concept of "phronesis" - essentially a form of reasoning which is neither scientific (in the sense of following universal rules) nor technical (being something which is simply 'done' without rational reflection), but geared towards the "deliberation of values with reference to praxis" - Flyvbjerg finds a solid ground from which to start fighting back against previously devastating critiques which quite rightly ask questions such as "social science: so what?". Rather than seeking to answer this criticism by producing universal rules along the lines of the natural sciences, he argues, social science should aim to generate "power-conscious" interventions geared towards opening dialogue and generating consensus which will enable society to move forward. Social science, for Flyvbjerg, becomes an arena of expertise which seeks not to tell people "what to do" or "why they are doing", but rather to ask "where they are going" and "is this desirable?". As someone on the verge of 'losing his faith' in the pursuit of social science as a meangingful discipline with something to offer back to its object of study, this book has totally rejuvinated my enthusiasm and, as such, I find it hard to recommend it highly enough. Flyvbjerg is far from inscrutable - he falls back on unconvincing Habermasian talk of consensual validity when trying to explain how social research will actually make an impact, and his appropriation of Foucault and Nietzsche as methodological mentors makes me nervous - but for me this only adds to the book's charm. Consistent with the author's argument, no line of thought, not even the positivist search for 'socal rules', is rejected out of hand, but rather "thought through" in the hope of extracting the good bits and throwing out the waffle. And that is precisely how I believe this book should be read - and you definitely *should* read it - except that waffle is refreshingly thin on the ground.

Beautiful song about our flag. On the vocal, Rainone comes through again on these great lyrics by Mr. Miller.

Jean-Francois Manzoni is Assistant Professor of Accounting and Control at French business school INSEAD; Jean-Louis Barsoux is a Research Fellow at INSEAD. Barsoux is also co-author of 'Managing Across Cultures' (1997). This Harvard Business Review article was published in March-April 1998.

This article is based on two studies designed to better understand the causal relationship between leadership style and subordinate performance - or in other words, how bosses and subordinates mutually influence each other's behavior. Those studies suggest that bosses - albeit accidentally and usually with the best intentions - are often complicit in an employee's lack of success. Manzoni and Barsoux use the term 'set-up-to-fail syndrome' to describe a dynamic "in which employees perceived to be mediocre or weak performers live down to the low expectations their managers have for them." The set-up-to-fail syndrome usually begins surreptitiously and underlying the syndrome are several assumptions/generalizations about weaker performers that bosses appear to accept uniformly. The authors describe these assumptions/generalizations and the impact they have on organizations and relationships. The two costs of the syndrome are the emotional cost paid by the associate and the organizational cost associated with the company's failure to get the best out of an employee. Other costs to consider, often indirect and long term, are: Sapping of the boss' emotional and physical energy, the impact on the boss' reputation, and the impact on the team (team spirit, time management, etc.). So how can we break out of this syndrome? The authors provide a five components framework for effective interventions but they warn that these interventions do not take place very often. In line with the recent emphasis on emotional intelligence, they conclude that higher emotional involvement and investment from bosses is the key to getting the subordinates to work to their full potential.

Good article into a very familiar problem, not just to organizations but also to people. The 'set-up-to-fail syndrome' is mostly based on generalizations by managers and bosses, but is difficult to reverse. The authors provide a solution which is primarily based on emotional intelligence, which is still difficult to learn. I recommend this article as an complement to Daniel Goleman's articles and books into emotional intelligent leadership and management. The authors use simple business US-English.

This book was written in such an easy to understand way, it was unbelievable. The author broke down the beatitudes and commandments in such a way that brought about new understanding and insight. I feel that I now have a better understanding of them and can apply them to my daily christian walk. I am now able to break it down to others so that they will be able understand as well. It is definitely a must read for all christians - or anyone striving to be!!