Organizational Theory

In the years following her role as the lead author of the international best seller, Limits to Growth - the first book to show the consequences of unchecked growth on a finite planet - Donella Meadows remained a pioneer of environmental and social analysis until her untimely death in 2001. Thinking in Systems is a concise and crucial book offering insight for problem-solving on scales ranging from the personal to the global. Edited by the Sustainability Institute's Diana Wright, this essential primer brings systems thinking out of the realm of computers and equations and into the tangible world....

Your organization's culture can feel like something that has a life of its own; it's long-standing, inherited, and seemingly impermeable - in fact, a strong culture is often an obstacle to doing new things or going in new directions. But leaders are the stewards of a company's culture and have the power to shape it. The best leaders know that organizational culture is a fundamental and powerful management tool that can drive positive outcomes.

Tremendous forces for change are radically reshaping the world of work. Disruptive innovations, radical thinking, new business models and resource scarcity are impacting every sector. Although the scale of expected change is not unprecedented, what is unique is the pervasive nature of the change and its accelerating pace which people in organizations have to cope with. Structures, systems, processes and strategies are relatively simple to understand and even fix.

This book brings together leading organization scholars and business historians to examine the opportunities and challenges of incorporating historical research into the study of firms and markets. It examines the reasons for the growing interest in historically grounded research in management departments and business schools, and considers both the intellectual and practical questions the endeavor faces.

If you cut off a spider's leg, it's crippled; if you cut off its head, it dies. But if you cut off a starfish's leg it grows a new one, and the old leg can grow into an entirely new starfish. The Starfish and the Spider argues that organizations fall into two categories: "spiders", which have a rigid hierarchy, and "starfish", which rely on the power of peer relationships.

The promise of artificial intelligence is automated decision-making at scale, but that means AI also automates risk at scale. In Ethical Machines, Reid Blackman gives you all you need to understand AI ethics as a risk management challenge. He'll help you build, procure, and deploy AI in a way that's not only ethical but also safe in terms of your organization's reputation, regulatory compliance, and legal standing—and do it at scale. And don't worry—the book's purpose is to get work done, not to ponder deep and existential questions about ethics and technology.

This book offers a concise, accessible guide to the key concepts and applications in Otto Scharmer's classic Theory U. Scharmer argues that our capacity to pay attention coshapes the world. What prevents us from attending to situations more effectively is that we aren't fully aware of that interior condition from which our attention and actions originate. Scharmer calls this lack of awareness our blind spot. He illuminates the blind spot in leadership today and offers hands-on methods to help change makers overcome it through the process, principles, and practices of Theory U.

Academia has produced many motivational theories. Most are well thought, and subsequent research has supported their usefulness and validity. One concern with theses theories, however, is the fact that they were mostly developed in academia using interviews, surveys, or controlled subject groups made up of students or paid participants. Often times, real world application is not part of this process. This eBook examines the gap between academia and the real world. It describes major seven motivational theories and applies them to situations in organizations. Using the examples provided, ...

Does your job make a meaningful contribution to the world? In the spring of 2013, David Graeber asked this question in a playful, provocative essay titled “On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs”. It went viral. After a million online views in 17 different languages, people all over the world are still debating the answer.

Entrepreneurs, businessmen, and investors are constantly looking for principles and rules that will pave the way for success. Usually, those at the forefront are successful entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley or legendary Wall Street investors. But the principles of economic growth, wealth creation, and preservation were written long before the rise of the modern market economy and its heroes.

The author of The Power of Habit and “master of the life hack” (GQ) explores the fascinating science of productivity and offers real-world takeaways to apply your life, whether you’re chasing peak productivity or simply trying to get back on track.

In the military, a field manual provides instructions in simple, clear, step-by-step language to help soldiers complete their mission. In the civilian sector, books offer information on everything from fixing a leaky faucet to developing an effective workout program to cooking a good steak. Leadership Strategy and Tactics explains how to take leadership theory, quickly translate that theory into applicable strategy, and then put leadership into action at a tactical level. This audiobook is the solution that leaders at every level need.

ATTENTION COLLEGE STUDENTS: If you need to write a paper on emotionally intelligent leadership or the application of motivational theories to the real world, then this is the perfect reference. It's simple, easy to understand, and right to the point. Emotionally Intelligent Leadership in Organizations Emotional intelligence and listening go hand-in-hand in most aspects of life. This relationship has application in the business world because it helps create the best leaders possible for achieving organizational growth and prosperity. This book focuses on emotionally intelligent leadership in...

How to structure your business for exponential growth. Have you ever wondered why some businesses scale while others fail? For every company that triples in size, thousands lose their momentum and get stuck. Every business leader aspires to achieve and sustain growth, but most come up short. Usually this happens because the early start-up structure is not designed to support their next-stage business strategy. It is not designed to scale. Designed to Scale explains the principles of scalable organizational structure.

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber, read by Christopher Ragland. Back in 1930, the economist John Maynard Keynes prophesied that by the century's end, technology would see us all working 15-hour weeks. But instead, something curious happened. Today, average working hours have not decreased but increased. And now, across the developed world, three-quarters of all jobs are in services or admin, jobs that don't seem to add anything to society: bullshit jobs.

Longing for a place of peace from which you can love others well? The Clutter-Free Home is your room-by-room guide to decluttering, reclaiming, and celebrating every space of your home. Let author Kathi Lipp (who once lived a life buried in clutter) walk you through each room of your house to create organizational zones that are not only functional and practical, but create places of peace that reflect your personality.

Tribalism is our most misunderstood buzzword. We’ve all heard pundits bemoan its rise, and it’s been blamed for everything from political polarization to workplace discrimination. But as acclaimed cultural psychologist and Columbia professor Michael Morris argues, our tribal instincts are humanity’s secret weapon. Ours is the only species that lives in tribes: groups glued together by their distinctive cultures that can grow to a scale far beyond clans and bands. Morris argues that our psychology is wired by evolution in three distinctive ways.

Read People like a Book isn’t a normal book on body language or facial expressions. Yes, it includes all of those things, as well as new techniques on how to truly detect lies in your everyday life, but this book is more about understanding human psychology and nature. We are who we are because of our experiences and pasts, and this guides our habits and behaviors more than anything else. Parts of this book are like the most interesting and applicable psychology textbook you’ve ever used. Take a look inside yourself and others!

In the new edition of this fascinating book, a book that has appeared on MSNBC, CNBC, Slashdot.org, Lifehacker.com and in the New York Times, best-selling author Scott Berkun pulls the best lessons from the history of innovation, including the recent software and web age, to reveal powerful and surprising truths about how ideas become successful innovations - truths people can easily apply to the challenges of today.

In Trustworthy AI, award-winning executive Beena Ammanath offers a practical approach for enterprise leaders to manage business risk in a world where AI is everywhere by understanding the qualities of trustworthy AI and the essential considerations for its ethical use within the organization and in the marketplace. The author draws from her extensive experience across different industries and sectors in data, analytics and AI, the latest research and case studies, and the pressing questions and concerns business leaders have about the ethics of AI.