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This is not a book about how to run a company. It is about how to look at the world differently. Ultimately, this will help the reader to deal with complexity more effectively. The market today is flooded with books which claim to show paths to higher organizational effectiveness. Most of these recommendations are given as "recipes for success" and on pragmatic grounds. This book, however, is targeted at all those who want access to the powerful models of systemic manageme nt in order to improve their skills in coping with complexity. The contents are of interest to people who deal with organizations - as leaders and mana gers or specialists, or as advanced students. The purpose is to give them conceptual and methodological guidelines by means of which they can. - Increase the "intelligence" of exis ting organizations by introducing or substituting a better design; - Shape new organizations so that they are "intelligent" from the very start. What are the distinctive features of this book? The book is the result of a long term research effort in to the deep seated, invariant features of organizations, ba sed on the Systems Approach, namely, Organizational Cybernetics and System Dynamics. These sciences have specialized in uncovering such basi c properties. They convey a fresh, sophisticated and unorthodox perspective. It is therefore worthwhile acq uiring the capability of looking at the social world in this different way.
List of contents
Organizational Intelligence in Systemic Terms.- Complexity and Understanding.- Management - A Distributed Function.- Intelligent Organization - A Systemic Framework.- Activities: What the Organization Does.- Structure - Preconditions for Effective Action.- Behaviour - The Control of Cognition and Emotion.- Ethos and Identity: Basic Parameters of Organizations.- Time and Organizational Dynamics.- The Framework Revisited.- Outlook: The Way Ahead.
About the author
Markus Schwaninger ist ein österreichischer Ökonom. Er ist emeritierter Titularprofessor für Betriebswirtschaftslehre mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Managementlehre an der Universität St. Gallen. Schwaninger promovierte 1979 an der Universität Innsbruck. Anschließend arbeitete er am Managementzentrum St. Gallen und am Institut für Betriebswirtschaft der Universität St. Gallen. Sein hauptsächliches Forschungsinteresse liegt in den Bereichen Organisationsintelligenz, Managementkybernetik und System Dynamics.
Summary
This book offers an innovative approach for overcoming the crisis of management in the face of complexity. The text fully explores this powerful tool, which is grounded in organizational cybernetics and systems dynamics. The book will serve as a sourcebook for improvement in many types of organizations, private or public, non-profit, large or small. The approach teaches managers and advanced students of management cope with organizational complexity in an effective way.
