Linkage, Inc.'s Best Practices in Organization & Human Resources Development Handbook

by Louis Carter and Jay Conger

Book Overview

Linkage, Inc.'s Best Practices in Organization and Human Resources Development Handbook is a collaborative work that includes 17 OD/HRD systems from the world's foremost organizations including... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0967796504
• ISBN13: 9780967796505
• Release Date: January 2000
• Publisher: Linkage Press
• Length: 604 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Bravo to the editors!

This book is terrific! I only hope that more best practices books are created like this one in the future. Please keep these books coming! They are better than benchmarking reports because they provide all of the elements necessary to fully understand how to lead initiatives in addition to all of the research.

Five Topic Areas of OD and HRD Initiatives

"The principal goal of this book is to provide you with the key ingredients taken from best-companies to help you create and enhance your organization and human resource development (OD/HRD) initiative. Through a case study approach, this book provides practical, easy-to-apply tools, instruments, training, concepts, and competency models that can be used as benchmarks for the successful implementation of your specific OD/HRD initiative (from the Introduction)."In this context, Louis Carter, David Giber, and Marshall Goldsmith (editors) divide core part of this book -Organization and Human Resources Development Case Studies- into following five OD/HRD topic areas: I. Organization Development and Change: In this section, W. Warner Burke says, "Seven rich cases (Kraft Foods, Nortel, ServiceMASTER, SmithKline Beecham, Westinghouse, CK Witko, and Xerox) of organization development and change are discussed...The cases cover a wide range of change from how OD occurs every day to deep change in an organization's culture...Without doubt we can learn from these cases. And learn we must. Changing organization is too intricate to be left to novices. We have indeed learned and noted at the outset, but we still have much to learn. As one who has been involved for more than 35 years, helping organizations change is both thrilling and very satisfying. Learning, however, is the most exciting part (pp.6-8)."II. Leadership Development: In this section, Jay A. Congerwrites that "In the cases that follow, we look at three companies (Boeing, Johnson & Johnson, and Sun Microsystems,Inc.) that have dedicated serious time and resources to leadership development...In addition, all three of the company cases make extended use of competency models, 360-degree feedback, and action learning (p.186)."III. Recruitment and Retention: In this section of the book, John Sullivan writes, "you'll learn how three diverse companies tackled their retention and recruiting problems. Two of the firms are high tech (AMD and Cellular One), while another (Allstate) is in a more traditional industry. Both AMD and Cellular One focus on solving the hot issue of retention while Allstate takes a new look at the recruiting and selection processes. All three of the case studies use a scientific approach to identify which solutions have the most impact...All three of these case studies are worth examining because of their scientific methodology as well as their results. All are full of powerfull 'lessons learned' for those who are soon to begin a major recruitment or retention effort (pp.303-304)."IV. Performance Management: This section examines performance management systems of Case Corporation and Sonoco. Edward E. Lawler III says that "the performance management systems in most organizations are contoversial, ineffective, and constantly under construction. They are so problematic that critics argue many organizations would be better off if they simply didn't have a performance management system

Substantial Cost...and of Even Greater Value

Here in a single volume is about all that is needed to design, implement, and then monitor a program through which to achieve organizational transformation. Moreover, the editors have selected both information and wisdom which can help to ensure that such a program is comprehensive, cohesive, and cost-effective. The phrase "best practices" is apt but should not be misconstrued to mean that strategies and tactics which have been highly successful in some organizations are necessary going to be successful in all others. Moreover, I urge the reader to keep in mind that, although the organizations featured (e.g. Boeing, Johnson & Johnson, Kraft Foods, Nortel Networks, ServiceMASTER, SmithKline Beecham, and Sun Microsystems) are among the largest in their respective industries, much of the material in this book is also relevant to small-to-midsize organizations. My own rather extensive past experience with all manner of organizations (including non-profits) has convinced me that most people do not fear change; rather, they fear the unfamiliar. Hence the importance of three on-going initiatives: communicate, communicate, and communicate.Part One consists of Acknowledgments, About This Book, How to Use This Book, and an excellent Foreword by Richard Beckhard. Carter, Giber, and Goldsmith then shift their attention in Part Two of "Organization & Human Resources Development Case Studies." The individual case studies are distributed within this thematic structure:Organizational Development & ChangeLeadership DevelopmentRecruitment & RetentionPerformance ManagementCoaching & MentoringPart Three: Conclusion consists of Research (OD/HRD Trends and Findings), Endnotes, About Linkage, Inc., About the Editors, Index, and How to Use the CD-ROM, terrific value-added benefit.Back to Beckhard's Foreword for a moment. In it, he identifies six (6) "elements" which are basic to each case study; all are central to and sequential within the change process associated with organizational development/human resource development (OD/HRD). They are: Business Diagnosis, Assessment, Program Design, Implementation, On-the-Job Support, and Evaluation. It is helpful to keep these six "elements" clearly in mind while working your way through the abundance of information which the editors provide. Fortunately, they have organized the (sometimes daunting) material with meticulous care and write exceptionally well. I also urge you to use the same six "elements" as guidelines when determining what the design of your own program for organizational change should be, and, when selecting those strategies and tactics discussed in the book which are most appropriate to the implementation and evaluation of that program. This is especially true of decision-makers in small-to-midsize organizations.Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out O'Toole's Leading Change, Katzenbach's Real Change Leaders as well as his Peak Performance , Kaplan and Norton's The Balan

Excellent examples of benchmark tools and processes!

If you're looking to move human resources out of the administrative back seat to the driver seat of change management and strategic imperatives in your organization then this is the book you need to read. I recommend this book to any human resource or organization development professional or department who is seeking to be an active strategic business partner in their companies. The book documents excellent examples of benchmark tools and processes.

This handbook is an invaluable resource.

This handbook is an invaluable resource. It is a wonderful example of how knowledge sharing is the way and means by which an individual, team, organization and/or community of practice connects and communicates to continually create, innovate, learn, and to take action. I am certain that the best practices shared in the handbook will result in the achievement of new business value through the continuous application, creation, aggregation, use and re-use of both organizational and personal knowledge, improvement processes and information throughout the business world.