Research Catalog

Title

Facing up to management faddism : a new look at an old force / Margaret C. Brindle and Peter N. Stearns.

Author

Brindle, Margaret.

Publication

Westport, Conn. : Quorum Books, 2001.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

Stearns, Peter N.

Description

ix, 211 pages; 24 cm

Summary

• "Organizations pour billions of dollars into programs that in the end prove to be nothing but fads - short lived "enthusiasms" with little purpose other than to make those who initiate and proselytize them rich. Brindle and Stearns take a long, sobering look at these vogues and fashions and illustrate the continuity and similarities among them. Fads are both product and process tied to tensions in the workplace, and to those who too quickly profess solutions to the problems these tensions cause.
• The authors shed new light on these fads, show how they develop in other cultures, and give managers everywhere new ways to react to them, and ways to uncover and resist their patently nonproductive blandishments. Executives, managers, and others with stakes in how organizations function will find this a lively, insightful appraisal, and a useful guide through the labyrinth of passing fancies that ultimately prove a waste of effort and other people's money."--BOOK JACKET.

Subjects

• Industrial management
• Fads

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

1. A Slippery Target -- Pt. I. What Fads Are: On and Beneath the Surface. 2. The Nature of Business Fads. 3. Fads: Change and Continuity across the Century -- Pt. II. Why Faddism? 4. What Causes Fads, and Why Are Causes Important? 5. Transmitting Twentieth-Century Faddism: The Role of Business Schools. 6. The Role of Consulting Firms -- Pt. III. The International Dimension. 7. International Outreach. 8. Fads/Faddisme: The French Case. 9. Fads on the International Stage: Trends and Prospects -- Pt. IV. Strategies for Managing Business Fads. 10. Managerial Problems and Case Studies. 11. How to Evaluate, How to Respond.

ISBN

1567203965 (alk. paper)

LCCN

00045846

OCLC

• ocm45080042
• SCSB-4140018

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries