Productive Workplaces: Dignity, Meaning, and Community in the 21st Century

Praise for Productive Workplaces "Weisbord has been a major voice in the theory and practice of organization development (OD) since the early 1970′s. This book is a wonderful history and reinterpretation of many of the events, schools of thought, and controversies that have punctuated the field from its beginnings. It should be required reading for every Organization Behavior and Development scholar. Among its many virtues, the book is beautifully written." —Peter Vaill, senior scholar and emeritus professor of management, Antioch University Ph.D. Program in Leadership and Change; author, Learning as a Way of Being: Strategies for Survival in a World of Permanent White Water, and Spirited Leading and Learning "During my 33–year career, I have been involved in publishing well over 1,000 books. Productive Workplaces is certainly among the top five most influential in terms of its impact on the organizations in which I worked, as well as on my personal leadership, and management concepts, and practices." —Steven Piersanti, president and publisher, Berrett–Koehler Publishers, Inc.; formerly president, Jossey–Bass Publishers "As a professor in graduate studies in leadership and business psychology, I see my role as passing on to a new generation the values and lessons learned from a 25–year career in organizational effectiveness. Marvin Weisbord is a master whose wisdom I encourage my students to seek out." —Connie S. Fuller, Ph.D., associate chair and assistant professor, Business Psychology, The Chicago School of Professional Psychology; coauthor, Bridging the Boomer–Xer Gap: Creating Authentic Teams for High Performance at Work "If somebody asks me to name just one good book on management, or organizational development, or social psychology, I give them the same answer: Productive Workplaces. It addresses the heady topic of meaning and dignity in work with writing that is as engaging as a well–written novel." —Gil Steil, Gil Steil Associates, Boston, Massachusetts

Updates from the Field xxi Foreword by Billie Alban: The Existential Question xxiii Preface:Welcome to Productive Workplaces, 25th Anniversary Edition xxvii Introduction: Getting the Most from Productive Workplaces xxxiii PART ONE Mythology and Managing 1 ONE A Mythology of Organizational Change 3 TWO How I Learned to Manage by Managing 15 PART TWO Searching for Productive Workplaces 33 THREE Scientific Management: A Tale of Two Taylors 35 FOUR Taylor Invents a New Profession 59 FIVE Action Research: Lewin Revises Taylorism 79 SIX Lewin’s Legacy to Management 97 SEVEN The Transition to Experiential Learning 113 EIGHT McGregor and the Roots of Organization Development 133 NINE Theories X and Y for a New Generation 149 TEN Emery and Trist Redefine the Workplace 167 ELEVEN Learning to Work in a New Paradigm 185 PART THREE Learning from Experience 203 TWELVE Putting Action Research to Work 207 THIRTEEN Rethinking Diagnosis and Action 221 Case 1. Food Services Turnover: Action Research and Human Resource Accounting 223 Case 2. Chem Corp R&D: Managers Do Their Own Feedback 230 Case 3. Packaging Plant: Operators Meet Expert Analysis 235 Case 4. Solcorp: Expertise Can’t Fix the Old Paradigm 244 FOURTEEN Managing and Consulting in Permanent White Water 253 FIFTEEN Involving Everyone to Improve the Whole 269 Case 5. Medical School: Stakeholders Plan the Future 270 Case 6. Printing Inc.: Getting the Report Out of the Drawer 277 SIXTEEN Revising Theories of What Works 289 SEVENTEEN Making Systems Thinking Experiential 303 PART FOUR Integrating the Past into the Present 317 EIGHTEEN 21st Century Managing and Consulting 321 NINETEEN Changing Everything at Once 343 TWENTY Teamwork in a Fast–Changing World 375 TWENTY ONE Designing Work for Learning and Self–Control 387 TWENTY TWO Future Search: The Whole System in the Room 411 TWENTY THREE Cross–Cultural Future Searching 427 PART F IVE Learning Then and Now 443 TWENTY FOUR Ten Cases Decades Later: What’s Sustainable About “Change”? 445 TWENTY FIVE Changing the World One Meeting at a Time 459 TWENTY SIX The Future Never Comes, It’s Already Here 471 References 483 Acknowledgments 501 About the Author 505 Index 507