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Tom Peters is the management guru's management guru. His is the story that launched a thousand management stories. This new book offers a critical assessment of Tom Peters' contribution to management thought and practice.
The author, a globally recognized expert on management gurus, places Tom Peters at the forefront of the narrative turn in management. Charting and accounting for Tom Peters' contributions to management, the book analyses the practices that Peters has used to shape our appreciation of the business of excellence and in so doing probes and accounts for the preferences of the excellence project.
An accessible and illuminating work, the book will appeal to students and scholars as well as thoughtful managers and leaders.
List of contents
1. The Genesis of the Excellence Project 2. The Works of Tom Peters 1982-1985 3. The Works of Tom Peters 1987-2018 4. An Introduction to Organizational Storytelling 5. Types of Organizational Stories 6. Excellence and the Management Storyteller 7. Hierarchy and Anxiety in Management Stories 8. Women in Management Stories 9. Concluding Comments
About the author
David Collins is Professor in Management at Newcastle Business School, Northumbria University, UK, and Visiting Professor in Management at the University of the Faroe Islands, Denmark.
Summary
Tom Peters is the management guru's management guru. His is the story that launched a thousand management stories. This new book offers a critical assessment of Tom Peters' contribution to management thought and practice. The author, a globally recognized expert, places Tom Peters at the forefront of the narrative turn in management.
Additional text
"No one understands Tom Peters and his work better than David Collins. In the forty years since In Search of Excellence, organisation theories have come and gone, but the Excellence movement captured the neoliberal zeitgeist and changed the organisational landscape. Collins charts the rise of Peters, who traded on his ability to engage with the hopes and fears of his audience. This book shows that while Tom Peters’ case for Excellence may be flawed, its impact should not be ignored. If we are to understand, challenge and change the behaviour of today’s organisations and those who manage them, we have to understand Peters and his work. Collins does that better than anyone else. This is a great book – buy it, read it, recommend it to friends, colleagues, and students."
Bernard Burnes, Chair of Organisational Change, Stirling Management School, University of Stirling, UK.
