Designing Effective Organizations: Traditional and Transformational Views

By David K. Banner

Book Overview

"Takes a holistic approach that is often lost in more narrow-minded texts. Great for graduate students."
--Robert Kramer, Department of Management Science, George Washington University

"With its distinctive voice, this is a basic text for all courses on organizational theory."
--BUSINESS HORIZONS

"This book presents an avant garde approach to an important topic about which, to my way of thinking, no one else has written even a contemporary book. . . . The authors′ perspective readily allows the reader to comprehend and appreciate what is always present--often hidden and almost always controversial--the subjective side of organizational life. . . . The book you are about to read provides the rationalist and the veteran exactly what they each crave the most. It provides synthesis and order within a structure that acknowledges the interaction between an individual′s motivations and needs and the apparent order that individual perceives. . . . The use of cartoons and other ′right-brain′ highlighters allow readers to look down, as opposed to looking up, to understand and critique a phenomenon that a theory purports to explain, and to self-reflect on the importance a theory holds for the field. . . . Certainly, this is a book for the 1990s."
--from the Foreword by Samuel A. Culbert, John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles

"What the authors are attempting is very difficult. David K. Banner and T. Elaine Gagn are declaring the presence of a new paradigm of the organization before it has actually crystallized and become part of the mainstream of organization theory. As such, the book is an act of leadership."
--Peter B. Vaill, Professor of Human Systems, School of Business and Public Management, The George Washington University

"A valuable resource to the students and instructors of organizational design and theory courses. The comprehensive coverage of traditional organization theory topics coupled with the authors′ contemporary orientation and transformational perspective ensure this. "The organizational design and theory text by Banner and Gagn addresses an important fact of organizational life that is usually ignored or given superficial treatment at best in existing organization theory texts; namely, that our implicit assumptions, worldviews, metaphors, paradigms, and organizational culture are important determinants of why we organize the way we do."
--Douglas Austrom, President and Cofounder, Turning Point Associates, Indianapolis, Indiana

"A valuable basic text for business related undergraduate or postgraduate programmes on organization theory (and practice ); particularly from a transformational perspectives."
--LONG RANGE PLANNING

Providing a distinctive voice, Designing Effective Organizations is the new basic text for the undergraduate or MBA-level course on organization theory. Although it contains the same comprehensive topical coverage as the leading traditional organization theory texts, Designing Effective Organizations is definitely not a clone of the others in the field. David K.Banner and T. Elaine Gagn develop a transformational perspective--which sees the world of the organization as a projection of each organizational member′s consciousness--as opposed to the traditional rational perspective. They thoroughly cover all the basics, but in a manner that reflects today′s changing management paradigms.

Designing Effective Organizations is the perfect text for scholars, researchers, professionals, and graduate and undergraduate students in organization studies, management, sociology, public administration, and education.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0803948484
• ISBN13: 9780803948488
• Release Date: August 1994
• Publisher: Sage Publications, Inc
• Length: 492 Pages
• Weight: 0.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 7.4" x 10.2"

Customer Reviews

Business textbook takes readers to a different dimension

[This review originally appeared in the Autumn 1997 issue of ILLUSIONS Magazine: A Journey Through Ideas & Spirit. Review reprinted here with the permission of MoonShadow Press, Inc.] DESIGNING EFFECTIVE ORGANIZATIONS review by John Haynes Not many of us can lay claim to being true paradigm-shifters, but let's give David Banner and T. Elaine Gagne credit---in their book DESIGNING EFFECTIVE ORGANIZATIONS, they've managed to take the college business textbook to another level. Banner and Gagne do this by incorporating a fairly healthy dose of spirituality in their approach, and the result is a very readable textbook for undergraduate or MBA-level course work. Basically, DESIGNING EFFECTIVE ORGANIZATIONS examines organizational structure and processes in the ordinary way but also (and here's where the paradigm shifts) in a subjective, ethical, and-one is tempted to repeat---spiritual way. What resonates throughout the book is the premise that organizations---like the people who comprise them---cannot be easily or readily quantified. Behavior cannot be predicted with 100% accuracy, and expecting human beings to work and think like machines is completely unrealistic. One has to cut beneath the surface to see the hidden dynamics. What one sees then is that the organization is nothing more than an agreement in consciousness, i.e. an agreement about `who we are', `how we interact with each other', how we deal with authority', etc. Understanding this basic truth ( and its far-ranging implications) results in a smoother operation, a better organizational flow. For instance, in their book Banner and Gagne profile the organizational styles of unconventional companies like Ben & Jerry's Homemade, Inc. and Celestial Seasonings, but also examine such "staid players" as Dow Corning, Inc. and IBM. Thrown in the mix you'll find relevant mentions of the human potential movement, entropy, and quantum physics. Believe it or not, the lessons learned from such "out there" disciplines can be of great benefit to business organizations, if only reluctant corporations would open themselves to the possibilities. From the book: "Science and spirituality are blending as the paradigm shifts; so are spirituality and organization. The Latin definition of spiritus, the root of spirit, is `breath.' In the organizational context, spirituality breathes life into the organization. Harrison Owen, in his article `Leadership by Indirection,' argues that, if we were to get `back to basics,' we would see our organizations as `spirit and flow' and that leadership would be seen as the capacity to `focus spirit and enhance its power.'" This is not your father's MBA handbook, boys and girls. DESIGNING EFFECTIVE ORGANIZATIONS is also filled with Ashleigh Brilliant's delightful POT-SHOTS cartoons, which by themselves would be worth the price of the book. If you or someone you know is studying business--whether in a college setting or informally--it would behoove you to take a look at Banner