The Management of Ideas in the Creating Organization

By John E. Tropman

Book Overview

Tropman goes beyond the notion of the learning organization to propose the creating organization, an organization which sees that ideas--their initiation, development, and implementation--are the key resources for success in the 21st century. While three key resources are important to any organizations--money, people and ideas--the last has been developed the least. Everyone in the organization knows who handles the money; most people know who handles the people, but few know who handles the organizations' store of ideas. Indeed, as one executive said, Why should we have such a person; we have no ideas As the environment moves ever faster, the long chains of command for getting art to part, from concept to customer are no longer tolerable. People closest to the problem have to solve the problem--and problem solving means having ideas about what is wrong, what can be done, and who should do it.

This book introduces the concepts of IdeaManangement and IdeaLeadership as central positions and functions for the 21st century organization. IdeaManagement will be one of the central pieces of the job description of the new manager. This involves not only the creation of the IdeaManager, but tasks that person to turn all of their employees into IdeaLeaders. IdeaLeadership must be a role broadly distributed so that everyone takes a turn at being an IdeaLeader. IdeaLeaders suggest, offer, propose, and point out new ways to do old things, new things than can be done with old ways, and new things that need to be done and need new ways. But no longer are IdeaLeaders going to be pushed to the edge of the organization and then eventually out of the organization. Rather they will become the central forces of the organization, and everyone else will be tasked with helping them implement the new ideas. The organization, then, will be idea-driven more than anything else. The ability to generate ideas and put them quickly into action will be the next competitive edge.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1567201687
• ISBN13: 9781567201680
• Release Date: August 1998
• Publisher: Praeger
• Length: 280 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.4" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Superior Insights and useful ideas

I bought this book to supplement the standard text and coursepack of the core Organizational Behavior course in the MBA program here at the UM b-school. Frankly, I found this book more useful than the textbook we were assigned. Its insights were expressed more more clearly. This book is also better organized and more concise.It is definitely worth the price and worth reading more than once. I keep it in a handy place on my bookshelf.

IDEA-DRIVEN REALITY-MOVING BEYOND THE LEARNING ORGANIZATION!

This book moves beyond the learning organization to propose the creating organization-one that sees that the initiation, development and implementation of ideas are the key resources for success. The book is about idea development and management; ergo...the idea management function is central to organizational success. The author introduces the concept of IdeaLeadership, a role dispersed throughout an organization, involving everyone as an IdeaLeader-those who propose new ways of doing things and new things to be done. IdeaManagement, a part of IdeaLeadership, harnesses and directs ideas and is the core of the manager's job as we enter the 21st Century. These concepts are the basis for an idea-driven organization geared to the competitive environment in today's "only the paranoid will survive" marketplace. The author examines virtually every element of organization through the idea lens, resulting in a highly absorbing and informative book. Tropman is pushing the envelop, advancing our thinking about organization in harmony with today's Knowledge Revolution. Many of the organizational issues we deal with in our consulting work focus on the challenge of creating innovative enterprises with creative spirit. We find this book offers many ideas and insights from which organization leaders can benefit greatly. Highly recommended. Reviewed by Gerry Stern and Yvette Borcia, editors of Stern's Management Review, founders, Stern & Associates and the Human Resources Knowledge Network, authors of Stern's Sourcefinder: The Master Directory to HR and Business Management Information & Resources, Stern's CyberSpace SourceFinder, and Stern's Compensation and Benefits SourceFinder.