Neil Douglas – författare

Belief is not knowledge, but we tend to hold our beliefs as if they represent knowledge, selecting whatever evidence is required to justify them. And because humans tend to cling to their beliefs as truths, organizations often ignore the need for change, no matter how urgent that need.From Belief to Knowledge: Achieving and Sustaining an Adaptive Culture in Organizations offers potential change agents an integrative analysis and treatment of the problem of organizational learning. It demonstrates the importance of looking beneath beliefs and assumptions to find the roots and persistent influences that preserve them. It gives us a much broader definition of organizational knowledge than that associated with information technology and the currently popular idea of knowledge as an asset. Furthermore, it provides an alternative view of culture and change, one that is defined by the ability to continually align collective beliefs with reality.Douglas and Wykowskia answer the question that lingers in the minds of many managers What does organizational learning mean and how does it influence ongoing organizational success? Lee Newick, Shell DownstreamRather than offer simple recipes, this book shows how good leaders can evolve and sustain an adaptive culture that develops knowledge through purposeful human interaction. It explores key dynamics of learning, considers the diversity of beliefs present in any group, and demonstrates ways that those leaders can explore and encourage the potential of both the group and individuals within the group.Although this book is geared to organizational change, it has the potential to change all areas of human endeavor. David Julian Hodges, City University of New York

Belief is not knowledge, but we tend to hold our beliefs as if they represent knowledge, selecting whatever evidence is required to justify them. And because humans tend to cling to their beliefs as truths, organizations often ignore the need for change, no matter how urgent that need.From Belief to Knowledge: Achieving and Sustaining an Adaptive Culture in Organizations offers potential change agents an integrative analysis and treatment of the problem of organizational learning. It demonstrates the importance of looking beneath beliefs and assumptions to find the roots and persistent influences that preserve them. It gives us a much broader definition of organizational knowledge than that associated with information technology and the currently popular idea of knowledge as an asset. Furthermore, it provides an alternative view of culture and change, one that is defined by the ability to continually align collective beliefs with reality."Douglas and Wykowski…answer the question that lingers in the minds of many managers – What does organizational learning mean and how does it influence ongoing organizational success?" – Lee Newick, Shell DownstreamRather than offer simple recipes, this book shows how good leaders can evolve and sustain an adaptive culture that develops knowledge through purposeful human interaction. It explores key dynamics of learning, considers the diversity of beliefs present in any group, and demonstrates ways that those leaders can explore and encourage the potential of both the group and individuals within the group."Although this book is geared to organizational change, it has the potential to change all areas of human endeavor." – David Julian Hodges, City University of New York

Beyond Reductionism: Gateways for Learning and Change takes a critical look at organizational learning and change management from a leadership perspective in late 20th century organizations. The authors argue that the dynamics that restrain the efforts of leaders transcend personal attributes and leadership styles. They are rooted in the nature of work and institutions and the histories and cultures of the organizations themselves.Often seen as the central constraint - and the core limiting factor in organizational effectiveness and learning - reductionism is defined as over-simplification and a failure to comprehend the nature of life in organizations by concentrating too fully on discrete and disconnected aspects of reality. The other constraints of hierarchy and institutional knowledge are activated and driven by reductionism.After reading Beyond Reductionism: Gateways for Learning and Change leaders at all organizational levels will understand why low levels of organizational learning persists and change efforts fail. They will also be equipped to recognize and reject overly simplistic and superficial interventions, helping them to create non-reductionist strategies for creating and sustaining change. Actual project designs, experiences, techniques and results are described in the book within an overall framework that emphasizes the roles and interconnectedness of individuals, leaders, and groups, all operating within the overlay of culture.

Beyond Reductionism: Gateways for Learning and Change takes a critical look at organizational learning and change management from a leadership perspective in late 20th century organizations. The authors argue that the dynamics that restrain the efforts of leaders transcend personal attributes and leadership styles. They are rooted in the nature of work and institutions and the histories and cultures of the organizations themselves.Often seen as the central constraint - and the core limiting factor in organizational effectiveness and learning - reductionism is defined as over-simplification and a failure to comprehend the nature of life in organizations by concentrating too fully on discrete and disconnected aspects of reality. The other constraints of hierarchy and institutional knowledge are activated and driven by reductionism.After reading Beyond Reductionism: Gateways for Learning and Change leaders at all organizational levels will understand why low levels of organizational learning persists and change efforts fail. They will also be equipped to recognize and reject overly simplistic and superficial interventions, helping them to create non-reductionist strategies for creating and sustaining change. Actual project designs, experiences, techniques and results are described in the book within an overall framework that emphasizes the roles and interconnectedness of individuals, leaders, and groups, all operating within the overlay of culture.

Through a collection and analysis of carefully selected readings, Rethinking Debatable Moments in the Civil Rights Movement: Learning for the Present Moment highlights particular issues, tensions, and dynamics within the Civil Rights Movement. The text asks pointed questions regarding debatable moments of the Civil Rights Movement in order to encourage critical study, stimulate thinking about possible consequences then and now, seek answers or refine the questions, and seek direction for the present moment.The readings are organized in chapters according to the debatable moments: 1) Should the NAACP have pursued the case of Claudette Colvin in combating bus segregation in Montgomery?; 2) Should Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., have joined the Freedom Riders when invited to do so in 1961?; 3) Should children have been allowed to participate in the Birmingham Campaign protests in 1963?; 4) Should SNCC's John Lewis have agreed to amend his speech in the 1963 March on Washington?; and 5) Should Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., have turned the marchers around at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma after Bloody Sunday? General and chapter introductions and an epilogue explore the context, the key players, the issues, the nature of the crisis, and the consequences and implications of each debatable moment.Rethinking Debatable Moments in the Civil Rights Movement is an excellent supplementary text for courses in anthropology, sociology, black studies, and related social science disciplines.

This book challenges the roots and elements of the existing dominant paradigm of management, which can legitimize artless practices and result in dysfunction, and proposes an alternative based on a different understanding of human nature and social and economic life. This paradigm is designed to bring about the conception of organizations as wholes rather than assemblies of disembodied fragments, with managers as facilitators of the work of others and shapers of culture, with a clear sense of purpose and a moral compass. Such a paradigm would result in a practice of management that is more competent, more purposeful, and more ethical, based on a more accurate and complete comprehension of reality. This book sets forth a more optimistic understanding of human nature and collective life, and the hope that we can be and do better.  It is a major contribution to the field of management and will benefit academics, managers, and consultants working in the fields of organizational development and strategic change.

This book challenges the roots and elements of the existing dominant paradigm of management, which can legitimize artless practices and result in dysfunction, and proposes an alternative based on a different understanding of human nature and social and economic life. This paradigm is designed to bring about the conception of organizations as wholes rather than assemblies of disembodied fragments, with managers as facilitators of the work of others and shapers of culture, with a clear sense of purpose and a moral compass. Such a paradigm would result in a practice of management that is more competent, more purposeful, and more ethical, based on a more accurate and complete comprehension of reality. This book sets forth a more optimistic understanding of human nature and collective life, and the hope that we can be and do better.  It is a major contribution to the field of management and will benefit academics, managers, and consultants working in the fields of organizational development and strategic change.

This book challenges the roots and elements of the existing dominant paradigm of management, which can legitimize artless practices and result in dysfunction, and proposes an alternative based on a different understanding of human nature and social and economic life. This paradigm is designed to bring about the conception of organizations as wholes rather than assemblies of disembodied fragments, with managers as facilitators of the work of others and shapers of culture, with a clear sense of purpose and a moral compass. Such a paradigm would result in a practice of management that is more competent, more purposeful, and more ethical, based on a more accurate and complete comprehension of reality. This book sets forth a more optimistic understanding of human nature and collective life, and the hope that we can be and do better.  It is a major contribution to the field of management and will benefit academics, managers, and consultants working in the fields of organizational development and strategic change.

Belief is not knowledge, but we tend to hold our beliefs as if they represent knowledge, selecting whatever evidence is required to justify them. And because humans tend to cling to their beliefs as truths, organizations often ignore the need for change, no matter how urgent that need.From Belief to Knowledge: Achieving and Sustaining an Adaptive Culture in Organizations offers potential change agents an integrative analysis and treatment of the problem of organizational learning. It demonstrates the importance of looking beneath beliefs and assumptions to find the roots and persistent influences that preserve them. It gives us a much broader definition of organizational knowledge than that associated with information technology and the currently popular idea of knowledge as an asset. Furthermore, it provides an alternative view of culture and change, one that is defined by the ability to continually align collective beliefs with reality."Douglas and Wykowski…answer the question that lingers in the minds of many managers – What does organizational learning mean and how does it influence ongoing organizational success?" – Lee Newick, Shell DownstreamRather than offer simple recipes, this book shows how good leaders can evolve and sustain an adaptive culture that develops knowledge through purposeful human interaction. It explores key dynamics of learning, considers the diversity of beliefs present in any group, and demonstrates ways that those leaders can explore and encourage the potential of both the group and individuals within the group."Although this book is geared to organizational change, it has the potential to change all areas of human endeavor." – David Julian Hodges, City University of New York