Charles Heckscher - Böcker

Can we rebuild trust in a time of increasing conflict and paralysis? Or rather, can we build trust, for the first time, wide and strong enough to bring us together to work on the complex problems of our age?Relations of trust have been weakened over the past century by a historic expansion of communication and cross-cultural interaction, and the advance of complex, fluid relationships. Now the rapid rise of the internet has accelerated the disruption. Many long for the comfort and security of relations in which one knew whom to trust and what to expect; yet at the same time they may embrace the dynamism and creativity that comes from mixing of cultures and perspectives. This book explores current conflicts and confusions of relations and identities, using both general theory and specific cases. It argues that we are at a catalyzing moment in a long transition from a community in which the prime rule was tolerance, to one with a commitment to understanding; from one where it was considered wrong to argue about cultural differences, to one where such arguments are essential. The development of this rich community is essential as well as difficult. Complex societies produce complex challenges, from climate change to inequality to the risk-laden opportunities of bioengineering, that demand collaboration among people with widely varying views. Such brewing crises cannot be worked through without far more deliberate discussion and cooperation, and higher levels of trust, than we have today. This book explores many challenges ahead and suggests some practical directions for resolving them.

This work focuses on the transition faced by business organizations and their stakeholders as they move from protected markets to open competition, and it explores how these changes can be facilitated by outside interveners/agents. The four authors - two from Europe and two from the United States - have worked separately as consultants with leaders of many companies and unions facing these challenges, including AT&T, Lucent, Electricite de France, and the Italian State Railways (Ferrovie dello Stato). The reader is thus afforded an unusual insight into the process of change in a large organization - not only close-up accounts of what happened, but understanding of the relationship between the researcher/consultant and different groups within the organization - senior managers, HR people, unions, and ordinary employees.

This book focuses on the transition faced by business organizations and their stakeholders as they move from protected markets to open competition, and it explores how these changes can be facilitated by outside interveners/agents. The four authors - two from Europe and two from the United States - have worked separately as consultants with leaders of many companies and unions facing these challenges including AT&T, Lucent, Electricite de France, and the Italian State Railways (Ferrovie dello Stato). The reader is thus afforded an unusual insight into the process of change in a large organization - not only close up accounts of what happened, but understanding of the relationship between the researcher/consultant and different groups within the organization - senior managers, HR people, unions, and ordinary employees.The book draws lessons from these cases and experiences on a number of different levels: lessons about the methods of intervention in large organizations; about the nature of the organizational transitions as business faces increased competition; about the pressures this places on unions and other stakeholder groups; about the differences between the US and European context; and about possible models for advancing the change process in the future. The analysis finally focuses on the larger set of forces driving all these cases: the transition to a global post-industrial economy. The experience of change in these corporations, from this perspective, illuminates the dynamics of transition between neo-corporatist stakeholder relations and a more pluralist and decentralized system emerging throughout the industrialized world. This unusual book - by a team of highly experienced researchers/consultants - will be of interest to a broad readership of academics, students, consultants, HR professionals interested in the process and management and change, and contemporary trends in modern societies.

This volume explores the changing nature of community in modern corporations. Community within and between firms - the fabric of trust so essential to contemporary business - has long been based on loyalty. This loyalty has been largely destroyed by three decades of economic turbulence, downsizing, and restructuring. Yet community is more important than ever in an increasingly complex, knowledge-intensive economy. The thesis of this volume is that a new form of community is slowly emerging - one that is more flexible and wider in scope than the community of loyalty, and that transcends the limitations of both traditional Gemeinschaft and modern Gesellschaft. We call this form collaborative community.The trend towards collaborative community is difficult to detect amidst the ferocious forces of market and bureaucratic rationalization. But close analysis of some of America's most successful corporations reveals three dimensions of the emerging form:· a shared ethic of interdependent contribution: distinct from the uneasy mix of loyalty and individualism that prevailed for so long;· a formalized set of norms of interdependent process management that include iterative co-design, metaphoric search, and systematic mutual understanding: distinct from both rigid authority hierarchies and informal log-rolling;· An interdependent social identity that supports these organizational features: distinct from both dependent, traditionalistic identities and the independence of the autonomous self that is often associated with Western culture.This volume is a collaborative effort of leading scholars in organization studies to delineate the new form of community and the forces encouraging and constraining its growth. The contributors combine sociology and psychology theory with detailed analysis of business cases at the firm and inter-firm level.

This volume explores the changing nature of community in modern corporations. Community within and between firms - the fabric of trust so essential to contemporary business - has long been based on loyalty. This loyalty has been largely destroyed by three decades of economic turbulence, downsizing, and restructuring. Yet community is more important than ever in an increasingly complex, knowledge-intensive economy. The thesis of this volume is that a new form of community is slowly emerging - one that is more flexible and wider in scope than the community of loyalty, and that transcends the limitations of both traditional Gemeinschaft and modern Gesellschaft. We call this form collaborative community. The trend towards collaborative community is difficult to detect amidst the ferocious forces of market and bureaucratic rationalization. But close analysis of some of America's most successful corporations reveals three dimensions of the emerging form: · a shared ethic of interdependent contribution: distinct from the uneasy mix of loyalty and individualism that prevailed for so long;· a formalized set of norms of interdependent process management that include iterative co-design, metaphoric search, and systematic mutual understanding: distinct from both rigid authority hierarchies and informal log-rolling;· An interdependent social identity that supports these organizational features: distinct from both dependent, traditionalistic identities and the independence of the autonomous self that is often associated with Western culture. This volume is a collaborative effort of leading scholars in organization studies to delineate the new form of community and the forces encouraging and constraining its growth. The contributors combine sociology and psychology theory with detailed analysis of business cases at the firm and inter-firm level.

Organizing for competitive advantage and profitHow can businesses best tap diverse capabilities to generate new ideas, manufacture products, and properly execute strategy? In this groundbreaking, thoroughly researched book, organizational expert Charles Heckscher argues that, in a global network of creation and production, the dominant organizations will be those that master the still-uncodified skills of collaboration—replacing the giants of the past century who thrived on the mastery of bureaucratic systems. Though there has been much discussion of teamwork and alliances in recent decades, Heckscher argues that we are still a long way from fully understanding how to manage fluid and inconstant collaborations; and that this is an area dominated far more by rhetoric than reality. Using a combination of theory and extensive real-life case studies, Heckscher pushes the boundary of organization design and illustrates how companies are able to create new, effective patterns of interactions, and how they can build a culture and infrastructure necessary to support them. For organizational leaders in search of long-term competitive advantage, The Collaborative Enterprise offers sound research findings and invaluable insights.

The book is well organized and well written. After reading the book, I am convinced that our organizations must change in the directions prescribed by the authors, if these organizations are to succeed in this postindustrial, global age. --Personnel Psychology What is wrong with bureaucracy? What does the post-bureaucratic organization offer in the way of improvement? These and other provocative questions are addressed in this well-integrated collection of articles by leading scholars in the field of organizational change. The far-reaching implications of the transformation of organizations from bureaucratic to post-bureaucratic are critically examined. This outstanding volume begins with a definition of the "ideal" post-bureaucratic organization. It then critiques some of the fundamental assumptions of bureaucratic organizations such as the ethic of individual merit, decision-making roles, and coordinated effort. The contributors analyze the change process from bureaucracy to post-bureaucracy and three alternative approaches to bureaucracy including the virtual organization, the team organization, and the quality organization. The Post-Bureaucratic Organization concludes with two case studies that illustrate both the strengths and weaknesses of post-bureaucratic organizations. Ideal for scholars of organizational behavior, sociology of organizations, organizational psychology, and for those who are interested in the latest developments in corporate reorganization.