Intentional Revolutions : A Seven-Point Strategy for Transforming Organizations

By Helen C. VassalloJoan LancourtEdwin C. Nevis, et al.

Book Overview

Let science set the stage The most valuable ally a change agent could want. Author Edwin Nevis and his coauthors leverage breakthrough behavioral and social science research to arrive at seven surefire methods for investing workers with an all-new mindset. The results: a powerful strategy for influencing behavior, minimizing resistance to change, and sustaining an organization that is continuously adapting and self-renewing. Filled with examples of both successful and failed change efforts -- and with numerous case studies from companies including Motorola and Xerox -- this is one how-to on effecting change you should definitely include in your arsenal.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0787902403
• ISBN13: 9780787902407
• Release Date: May 1996
• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Length: 312 Pages
• Weight: 1.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 7.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Definitely worth reading

This a really good read. The authors begin from the premise that organizations are now more than ever forced to operate in a climate of change. Their capacity for transformation is therefore increasingly essential for their survival. The authors outline seven strategies for achieving such a transformation: coercion, persuasive communication, participation, structural rearrangement, role modelling, extrinsic rewards and expectancy. The different chapters are presented and organised in a readily accessible style, and their argument has a powerful intuitive appeal because of the way it resonates with many of our commonplace, day-to-day experiences of organisational culture and change.If the book has a weakness it is one common to this genre - namely that it deals much more effectively with what should be done than how it should be done. I find their seven strategies much more useful as a diagnostic or descriptive tool - helping to understand change efforts as merely one of several possible approaches - rather than as a prescriptive blueprint for how change can be implemented.