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ANNUAL REVIEW OF ADULT LEARNING & LITERACY

Volume 2
Resources on Organizational Development

Marcia Drew Hohn

The following selections provide sources for readers interested in pursuing the topic of organizations and their development. The annotations note the recommended audience for each title, its focus, and what that audience can expect to find when turning to it. Some titles, for example, focus on the kind of leadership believed to be necessary to carrying an organization through systemic change (examples are Stephen Covey’s “Three Roles of the Leader in the New Paradigm,” Edgar Schein’s “Leadership and Organizational Culture,” and Sally Helgesen’s The Web of Inclusion). Others focus on the special demands of initiating change in nonprofit organizations (John M. Bryson’s Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations), resources on applying systems thinking in organizations (Margaret Wheatley’s Leadership and the New Science), and practical strategies to support organizational change (Roger Fisher’s Getting to Yes).

Most of the following resources are readily available through public libraries, libraries in higher education institutions, or publishers or booksellers. A few, such as articles and collections of articles published by Harvard Business School Press, are available only by direct order from that publisher. I have included on-line ordering information for each publisher.

BOOKS

• Alvarez, R., & Luterman, K. G. (1979). Discrimination in organizations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 396 pages. Out of print but available at libraries.
  
  Focus: Racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination that thwart organizational development.
  
  Recommended audience: Anyone interested in discrimination in organizations.
  
  Discrimination in Organizations is a series of essays by twenty-five authors who examine five aspects of discrimination in organizations: access to opportunity and power, the extent of sexism and racism, the effects of outside influence (such as dominant ethnic groups) on organizational staffing, the representation of women and minorities by organization level, and institutions of social control, such as courts, public schools, and government agencies. The essays are a call for action.
  
  
• Bennis, W. (1993). Beyond bureaucracy: Essays on the development and evolution of human organization. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 254 pages. Can be ordered on-line at www.josseybass.com.
  
  Focus: The organization as embedded in external environments.
  
  Recommended audience: Those both new to and somewhat familiar with the field of organizational development.
  
  Bennis argues that the bureaucracy is in a state of decline as an organizational form, being too big and too slow to respond to the rapid pace of change in technology, the labor market, and the global economy. He also believes that the democratization of the workplace will speed the demise of the bureaucracy—that is, the emerging participatory nature of workplaces is incongruent with the command-and-control approach inherent in bureaucracies. Bennis supports his case by citing trends in the evolution of organizational development, such as employee empowerment and teamwork, and by examining the assumptions, such as the human need for recognition, that underlie his theory. He discusses changing patterns of leadership in the past few decades from authority and control to facilitation of relationships for developing a vision to achieve the organization’s potential and suggests several possible approaches through which to direct organizational change.
  
  
• Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (1997). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 450 pages. Can be ordered on-line at www.josseybass.com.
  
  Focus: Organization spirit and transformation.
  
  Recommended audience: Those interested in a broad perspective on organizational development; useful as both a primer and for those familiar with the field.
  
  This book is about understanding and changing organizations. It explores the development of thinking about organizations through a series of frameworks: structural, human resource, political, and symbolic. It also reviews the historical development of the field of organization development and cites the work of its significant theorists and thinkers. The author offers an extensive discussion on how leadership practices can be improved by drawing on the knowledge gained through the integration of organizational theories.
  
  
• Bryson, J. M. (1995). Strategic planning for public and nonprofit organizations. (Revised edition.) San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 348 pages. Can be ordered on-line at www.josseybass.com.
  
  Focus: Nonprofit organizations.
  
  Recommended audience: Directors, managers, and staff of nonprofit organizations.
  
  This is a guide to the strategic planning process written by a highly experienced consultant in organizational planning to assist nonprofits in strengthening and sustaining organizational achievement. The recommended cycle for strategic change has ten steps, and all the processes within each step are explained in detail. Steps range from identifying and clarifying organizational mandates and mission to developing, implementing, and integrating a strategic vision. Special attention is paid to the role of leadership in making strategic planning work. This guide is best read in conjunction with resources that emphasize a systems approach to planning, such as Peter Senge’s The Fifth Discipline (reviewed later in this bibliography), so that the reader develops an appreciation of how the complexities of interrelationships and interactions in organizations can affect planning initiatives.
  
  
• Bryson, J. M., & Alston, F. K. (1995). Creating and implementing your strategic plan: A workbook for public and nonprofit organizations. (2nd edition.) San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. 140 pages. Can be ordered on-line at www.josseybass.com.
  
  Focus: Nonprofit organizations.
  
  Recommended audience: Directors, managers, and staff of nonprofits interested in implementing strategic planning.
  
  This publication takes readers through a step-by-step process in which they create and implement a strategic plan (described above in Bryon, Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations). It also explains strategic planning and its value to nonprofit organizations as an alternative to other internal planning options, such as customer-focused processes. To be implemented effectively, this process requires a facilitator skilled in assisting organizations with planning.
  
  
• Capra, F. (1983). The turning point: Science, society, and the rising culture. New York: Bantam Books. 419 pages. Available at www.amazon.com.
  
  Focus: Organizations as systems.
  
  Recommended audience: Useful as a primer on systems thinking.
  
  Capra, a physicist, explores how the mechanistic worldview developed from the time of Descartes and Newton and how this perspective pervades society and institutions today. Capra goes on to discuss the reason that mechanistic ways of organizing inhibit creative problem solving. He then explains his interpretation of a systems view of life and the ways in which that view can help in solving critical social problems. Capra does a good job explaining complicated concepts and theories. The book is a fine introduction to systems thinking and the influence the mechanistic worldview has on contemporary work and social and family life.
  
  
• Clegg, S. R., & Hardy, C. (Eds.). (1999). Studying organization: Theory and method. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 480 pages. Can be ordered on-line at order@sagepub.com.
  
  Focus: Analysis of organizations.
  
  Recommended audience: Researchers.
  
  The contributors to this collection are academics and researchers who are writing for other academics and researchers in the field of organization theory. The chapters in Part One provide frameworks such as ecology and economics for the analysis of organizations. Those in Part Two are essentially reflections on research, theory, and practice. The chapters are on such topics as structural contingency theory, organizational ecology, feminist approaches in the workplace, the role of emotion in the workplace, and organizational culture. This book has an extensive bibliography that makes it a good reference.
  
  
• Edwards, P., Edwards, S., & Benzel, R. (1997). Teaming up. New York: Putnam. 385 pages. Can be ordered on-line at www.putnam.com/putnam.
  
  Focus: Practical strategies for organizational change.
  
  Recommended audience: Anyone whose organization may be entering into an alliance or merger with another organization.
  
  Teaming Up was written with small businesses in mind, but it has many ideas and strategies that will be useful to adult basic education programs that are contemplating a collaboration, alliance, or merger. Of particular interest are the chapters on legal and financial issues, the psychology of making relationships work, a troubleshooting guide, and the process for determining whether breaking up is the best thing to do. This book is written in a trendy style that educators may find irritating, but there are nonetheless a lot of useful ideas in it.
  
  
• Fisher, R., Ury, W., & Patton, B. (1981). Getting to Yes. New York: Penguin Books. 200 pages. Can be ordered on-line at www.amazon.com.
  
  Focus: Practical strategies for organizational change.
  
  Recommended audience: Anyone whose organization may be entering into an alliance, collaboration, or merger with another organization.
  
  Getting to Yes is a classic text on negotiation that has been used by businesses, churches, and other organizations. It is an excellent resource for adult basic education programs entering into collaborations, alliances, or mergers. Chapter topics include how to avoid bargaining over two different positions, how to focus on method (separate the people involved from the problem, focus on mutual interests and gains, invent options for mutual gain, and insist on using objective criteria), and how to address some of the more difficult areas of negotiation, such as dealing with more powerful organizations. This book has also been used increasingly for problem solving in families, especially those with teenagers.
  
  
• Fletcher, J. K. (1999). Disappearing acts: Gender, power and relational practice at work. Boston: MIT Press. 175 pages. Can be ordered on-line at http://www-mitpress.mit.edu.
  
  Focus: Workplace environments with a focus on gender issues.
  
  Recommended audience: Anyone interested in the psychological environment of the workplace.
  
  Relational practice is a term coined at the Center for Research on Women and the Stone Center at Wellesley College, a by-product of the research of Jean Baker Miller and others who have developed theories of how women learn and grow in the context of relationships. Disappearing Acts is based on Fletcher’s study of female design engineers and details how the need for relational skills and emotional intelligence that is associated with teamwork and employee empowerment in the modern organization is often undervalued or undermined when it bumps up against male-oriented images of what it takes to be successful. The very behavior that organizations say is needed disappears. Fletcher suggests some ways that individuals and organizations can make the hard work of collaboration and teamwork visible and underscores its importance for organizational competence.
  
  
• Harvard Business Review on change. (1998). Boston: Harvard Business School Press. 240 pages. Can be ordered on-line at 
  custserv@hbsp.harvard.edu.
  
  Focus: Organizational change and transformation.
  
  Recommended audience: Those interested in reading about the experience and results of a variety of organizational change initiatives.
  
  This is a collection of eight articles first published in the Harvard Business Review and written by organizational consultants and practitioners. Each article represents a particular perspective or case study on organizational change. Among the articles are “Why Transformation Efforts Fail” (Kotter), “Building Your Company’s Vision” (Colline & Porras), “Managing Change” (Duck), “The Reinvention Roller Coaster” (Goss, Pascale, & Athos), and “Reshaping an Industry” (Augustine). The articles are of varying quality and relevance to adult basic education, but they provide a good overview of current strategies for initiating organizational change.
  
  
• Helgesen, S. (1995). The web of inclusion. New York: Doubleday. 288 pages. Can be ordered on-line at www.amazon.com.
  
  Focus: Organizational change.
  
  Recommended audience: Those who want to know about models for inclusion and how they are developed for empowerment of voices within and between organizations.
  
  Helgesen’s thesis is that the modern organization relies on the ideas and talents and energy of its employees and that top-down bureaucratic organizations smother this creativity and energy. To support her thesis, she examines five organizations (three businesses, a newspaper, and a hospital) that have developed structures and processes that allow individuals and groups to create flexible and ever-changing webs of relationships, both internal and external, in order to respond rapidly to the demands of the workplace. The emphasis is on facilitation of relationships, employee empowerment, and inclusion of voices from across an organization.
  
  
• Kanter, R. (1997). On the frontiers of management. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. 320 pages. Can be ordered on-line at www.hbsp.harvard.edu.
  
  Focus: Organizational change and transformation.
  
  Recommended audience: A good resource for readers with some grounding in organizational theory and behavior.
  
  The writing in this book tends to be sweeping, with little underlying theory explored or explained. However, the author does paint a vivid picture of contemporary thinking about management and leadership and provides useful guiding principles for organizational development. Of particular interest is the chapter on change, in which Kanter emphasizes that change-friendly organizations are future oriented. Such organizations seek to close the gap between their current performance and their potential by means of a “learning together” approach that is characterized by the participation of employees at all levels and from all areas of the organization. Change-friendly organizations form internal and external networks around common interests and needs through which they can exchange knowledge and view differences in opinion as opportunities to grow. Their leaders create cultures in which people are encouraged to take risks. The emphasis of this book is on viewing employees as assets to the organization and defining management’s role in creating an environment where employees can flourish.
  
  
• Kotter, J. P. (1996). Leading change. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. 186 pages. Can be ordered on-line at www.hbsp.harvard.edu.
  
  Focus: Organizational change and transformation.
  
  Recommended audience: Anyone involved in or leading an effort to initiate organizational change.
  
  The eight-stage process for leading change that Kotter describes includes establishing a sense of urgency to change, creating a coalition to guide the change, developing a vision of the outcome of the change, communicating that vision through the organization, empowering employees to contribute to the change effort, generating short-term “wins” to encourage people to keep moving toward the larger goals, consolidating gains (interrelating key changes to leverage still more change), and anchoring new approaches in the culture of the organization (integrating changes into norms of behavior and shared values). What is most compelling about this book is its description of the needs of the organization and its people at each stage of the change process; it rings true. The writing is practical and personal. No attempt is made to provide a theoretical base or to explain underlying assumptions or beliefs. This is Kotter telling the reader what he thinks it takes to make change happen.
  
  
• Martin, J. (1992). Cultures in organizations: Three perspectives. New York: Oxford University Press. 240 pages. Can be ordered on-line at www4.oup.co.uk.
  
  Focus: Organizational culture.
  
  Recommended audience: Anyone interested in a synthesis of the research and writing on organizational culture.
  
  Studying organizational culture—the shared mental models or meanings that influence people’s behavior in organizations—was a fad in the 1980s, and much of the writing on this subject is fragmented and centered on case studies. Martin tries to make sense of this confusing array of research and writing by organizing it into three categories: integration, differentiation, and fragmentation. She uses case study materials from a Fortune 500 company to illustrate her points.
  
  
• Morgan, G. (1997). Images of organization. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 498 pages. Can be ordered on-line at order@sagepub.com.
  
  Focus: A broad perspective on the nature of organizations and organizational development.
  
  Recommended audience: Anyone interested in developing an understanding of organizations. An especially good introductory resource.
  
  This 1997 edition of Images of Organization is the updated version of the original 1986 edition, which electrified the organization world with its innovative approach to understanding organizations. As Morgan writes, the “book is based on a very simple premise: that all theories of organization and management are based on implicit images or metaphors that lead us to see, understand, and manage organizations in distinctive yet partial ways” (p. 4). This premise leads Morgan to explore organizations as modeled on machines, organisms, the brain, cultures, political systems, and psychic prisons. He discusses the way each image plays out in organizational design and management, traces its theoretical roots, and cites theorists and thinkers who have contributed ideas and concepts. The chapter on organizations as instruments of domination is excellent. Morgan writes in a clear and compelling style and has fresh perspectives, ideas, and insights.
  
  
• Morgan, G. (1997). Imaginization: New mindsets for seeing, organizing, and managing. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Now also available in paperback from Berrett-Koehler. 388 pages. Can be ordered on-line at www.bkpub.com.
  
  Focus: Organizational change and transformation.
  
  Recommended audience: Those new to and experienced in organizational change.
  
  Morgan introduced the term imaginization to give a name to the process through which people can free themselves of an organization’s dysfunctional mind-sets. He sees metaphor as the primary means through which people forge their relationship to their work; the individual’s image of self and the world, he believes, can either constrain or expand the potential for transformation. By developing an image of an organizational structure, a problem area, or some aspect of the future, Morgan says, it is possible to gain insight into how an organization operates and what it will take to change it. Nature is seen as a good source of images to use in this process. For example, a person might “image” an organization as an ant colony, a spider plant, a river, or a spider’s web to develop and communicate his or her understanding of how the organization operates. Imaginization can be read as a companion piece to Morgan’s Images of Organizations or on its own.
  
  
• Scholtes, P. R., with Joiner, B. L., Braswell, B., Finn, L., Hacquebord, H., Little, K., Reynard, S., Streibel, B., & Weiss, L. (1988). The team handbook. Madison, WI: Joiner Associates. 219 pages.
  
  Focus: Practical strategies for organizational change.
  
  Recommended audience: For anyone undertaking leadership of or involvement with teams.
  
  The Team Handbook was written to help companies implement Total Quality Management (TQM) and other quality initiatives (it contains introductions by W. Edwards Deming, a major force in the TQM movement, and Malcolm Knowles, a well-known adult educator and consultant to business). Despite its focus on quality initiatives, it is an excellent resource on teams and teamwork, which are here to stay in modern organizations. Included are discussions on holding productive meetings, maintaining record-keeping systems, and determining the best way to meet goals. The most valuable chapters have to do with the dynamics of team formation and growth, the highs and lows all teams face, and problem-solving and team-building guidelines and activities.
  
  
• Senge, P. (1990). The fifth discipline: The art and practice of the learning organization. New York: Doubleday. 360 pages.
  
  Focus: Organizations as systems.
  
  Recommended audience: Those interested in understanding the learning organization as it was introduced to the business community.
  
  The Fifth Discipline, which popularized the concept of the learning organization, electrified the business community when it was published in 1990. A decade later, it still impresses for its ability to capture the essence of leadership. Senge believes that five important components, or “cornerstones,” as he calls them, characterize the learning organization: (1) a shift in focus from the individual parts of a system to its functioning as a whole, with a deep appreciation of the interrelatedness of the various parts; (2) personal mastery, in which the individual clarifies and deepens his or her personal vision of what to accomplish; (3) an understanding of mental models (the paradigm or mind-set through which the organization operates); (4) the building of a shared vision of the organization; and (5) an effort to break old habits through disciplined dialogue. The writing is somewhat dense and convoluted. See The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook (Senge et al.) for a simpler presentation of the learning organization and for guidelines on how to create one.
  
  
• Senge, P. M., Kleiner, A., Roberts, C., Ross, R. B., & Smith, B. J. (1994). The fifth discipline fieldbook: Strategies and tools for building a learning organization. New York: Doubleday. 560 pages.
  
  Focus: Organizations as systems.
  
  Recommended audience: Those interested in learning more about the way a learning organization works.
  
  While many were inspired by the concept of the learning organization that Senge described in his path-breaking book The Fifth Discipline (1990), many also found it difficult to implement. Consequently Senge and his coauthors developed The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook, which outlines strategies and tools for building a learning organization and includes case studies as well as references to other theorists. The five cornerstones of the learning organization (see the annotation of Senge’s Fifth Discipline) are explained simply and clearly. This is an implementation guide, but it can also be used as a companion to the original book, which is somewhat dense and can be difficult to follow.
  
  
• Stern, G., for the Drucker Foundation. (1998). The Drucker Foundation self-assessment tool: Process guide and participant workbook. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Process guide: 176 pages; participant workbook: 80 pages. Can be ordered on-line at www.josseybass.com.
  
  Focus: Planning for organizational change.
  
  Recommended audience: Organizations interested in implementing a program for change.
  
  This package, which consists of a facilitator’s guide and participant workbooks, is meant to be used in training sessions to help nonprofits implement a planning process. It is the replacement for a previous publication of the Drucker Foundation (Peter Drucker is a writer, teacher, and consultant in management and leadership), The Ten Most Important Questions You Will Ever Ask About Your Nonprofit Organization, a guide to customer-focused planning for nonprofits. This revised version retains a customer focus and takes an organization through an entire self-assessment process for internal planning purposes. It is a useful tool for nonprofits, including adult basic education programs, but a facilitator experienced in a variety of forms of planning (for example, customer focused, strategic, and participatory) is needed to guide the process.
  
  
• Stivers, C. (1992). Gender images in public administration: Legitimacy and the administrative state. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. 176 pages. Can be ordered on-line at order@sagepub.com.
  
  Focus: Racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination in organizations.
  
  Recommended audience: Anyone interested in discrimination issues in organizations, particularly those of gender.
  
  Stivers’s book is likely to strike a note of recognition with many women who are “on tap but not on top” in public administrative agencies. She defines herself as a woman who had been ambivalent about feminism but could no longer ignore the impact of organizational concepts and theories being framed by an exclusively masculine perspective. She could also no longer ignore the fact that women have not often been in positions at high levels of organizations that would allow them to reshape the dialogue and the action. She organizes the book in terms of basic dilemmas in which professional women are likely to find themselves—for example, the “dilemma of expertise,” which confines a woman to a particular niche where she is unable to influence the overall organization, and the “dilemma of leadership,” in which women are expected to seem “ladylike” but act “tough” and in other ways associated with masculine behavior. One chapter explores feminist theory and suggests that many of its underlying values and concepts (such as the power of relational intelligence) need to be brought into the workplace.
  
  
• Weisbord, M. R. (1987). Productive workplaces: Organizing and managing for dignity, meaning, and community. San Francisco: Jossey Bass. 433 pages. Can be ordered on-line at www.josseybass.com.
  
  Focus: Organizational change and transformation.
  
  Recommended audience: Readers new to the arena of organizational change.
  
  In this memoir-like book, Weisbord tells how he learned about organization, management, and leadership as he helped to transform his own workplace and later used this experience when working as a consultant for other organizations. Writing in an engaging and personal manner, Weisbord explains how the work of five innovators (Taylor, Lewin, McGregor, Emery, and Trist) informed his understanding of the productive workplace. He makes connections to their work but does not pretend to give the reader a broad, balanced introduction to the field of organizational development. Weisbord also discusses case studies that exemplify methods of diagnosis and action in solving organizational problems, the importance of improving whole systems (as opposed to focusing on pieces of the organization), and the application of contemporary theories such as Total Quality Management to the design and practice of work processes.
  
  
• Wheatley, M. J. (1992). Leadership and the new science: Learning about organization from an orderly universe. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler. 151 pages. Can be ordered on-line at bkpub@bkpub.com.
  
  Focus: Organizations as systems from a chaos perspective.
  
  Recommended audience: Anyone interested in how organizational development can be informed by natural systems.
  
  Leadership and the New Science excited the business world on its publication and has since stirred new thinking about leadership across many types of organizations, including religious, social, and educational institutions. Working from a “chaos” mind-set, in which there is disorganization but underlying order, Wheatley invites the reader to look at natural systems such as rivers and forests for clues about organizing human endeavor. In this new paradigm, the central metaphors are organisms (such as plants) and ecological systems (the relationship between organisms and their environment), the strategic objectives are adaptation and continuous improvement, and the primary sources of value are information and knowledge. In the workplace, it is desirable to develop self-organizing teams that can form quickly to respond creatively to changes in the external environment.
  
  Contributions from physics and evolutionary biology are explored. The writing is clear, but some of the biology and physics may be difficult for lay readers, who may want to refer to A Simpler Way by Wheatley and Kellner-Rogers.
  
  
• Wheatley, M. J., & Kellner-Rogers, M. (1996). A simpler way. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler. 168 pages. Can be ordered on-line at bkpub@bkpub.com.
  
  Focus: Organizations as systems from a perspective of chaos.
  
  Recommended audience: Readers new to systems thinking and chaos theory.
  
  A Simpler Way is a simpler version of the main ideas put forth in Wheatley’s Leadership and the New Science (see the previous entry). Like its predecessor, this book illuminates a whole new way of thinking about organizations. Wheatley proposes that we can learn from natural systems—systems as large as rain forests and as small as the circulation system of the tiniest of organisms—by looking at patterns within patterns within patterns for clues about how to build human organizations and organizational life. The emphasis is on the essential simplicity of natural systems and their participatory and open nature. The book can be read as a companion piece to Leadership and the New Science or on its own.

ARTICLES AND ESSAYS

• Covey, S. R. (1996). “Three roles of the leader in the new paradigm.” In F. Hesselbein, M. Goldsmith, & R. Beckhard (Eds.), Leader of the future. Drucker Foundation for Non-Profit Management. 10 pages. Available on-line through Jossey-Bass at www.josseybass.com.
  
  Focus: Organizational culture.
  
  Recommended audience: Anyone interested in ethical issues in management and leadership and the role of the leader in creating organizational culture.
  
  Covey, author of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, Principle-Centered Leadership, and First Things First, discusses the leader who creates a culture or value system centered on principles of humility, courage, and integrity. He defines leadership in terms of three roles: pathfinding (developing a compelling vision and mission), aligning (forming continuity between the vision and the mission), and empowering (viewing employees as assets through which the vision and mission can be achieved). He thereby presents a paradigm that is different from traditional thinking about the nature of management, which does not emphasize the value of such personal qualities as humility. He stresses the importance of leaders in establishing organizational culture and broadens the scope of leadership to include people’s work in community organizations, churches, and other life arenas. Covey’s books and essays have been widely sold, and he presents regularly at conferences and seminars and in video broadcasts on management and leadership. His work has inspired many to look more deeply at their role as leaders.
  
  
• Harvard Business School Publishing. Control versus empowerment: Achieving a balance. Reprint Collection of the Harvard Business Review (1999). Harvard Business School Publishing product no. 39104. Can be ordered on-line at custserv@hbsp.harvard.edu.
  
  Focus: Organizational culture.
  
  Recommended audience: Anyone interested in issues of power and control in organizations.
  
  Empowerment is a natural outgrowth of new organizational designs and is integral to the spirit of learning organizations. It is also a term that has been so overused as to become almost meaningless. People who populate organizations are beginning to discern that there are limits to empowerment in the organizational culture and that with empowerment come new responsibilities and challenges. One of the greatest challenges is that of power sharing. Control Versus Empowerment contains seven articles by change consultants, practitioners, and theorists. Of particular interest is an article by Chris Argyris, who has studied and written about organizations since the 1950s. In “Empowerment: The Emperor’s New Clothes,” he explores how empowerment has remained mostly an illusion, despite all the hype, and how it too often enters the realm of political correctness in which no one can say what he or she is thinking. He posits that true power sharing requires sincere commitment, such that what is being asked for (more involvement and autonomy) is not undermined by information systems, processes, and tools designed to control.
  
  
• McCambridge, R., & Weis, M. F. (1997). The rush to merge: Considerations about nonprofit strategic alliances. Boston: Boston Foundation. Can be ordered from the Boston Foundation, One Boston Place, 24th Floor, Boston, MA 02108.
  
  Focus: Points to consider when developing alliances and collaborations with nonprofit organizations.
  
  Recommended audience: Anyone whose organization may be entering into an alliance, collaboration, or merger with another organization.
  
  This slim volume provides sound guidelines on how the nonprofit organization should approach alliances, collaborations, and mergers. Nonprofit organizations increasingly are being asked to enter into community planning, collaborate with other providers, and develop alliances with organizations concerned with a common population. Behind this trend are some unexplored assumptions about the benefits of this activity. What questions should be raised before an organization enters into such negotiations? What concerns must be addressed so that the alliance will have the best chance for success? What are the structural options of strategic alliances? These are the kinds of questions that McCambridge and Weis explore.
  
  
• Schein, E. H. (1996). “Leadership and organizational culture.” In F. Hesselbein, M. Goldsmith, & R. Beckhard (Eds.), Leader of the future. The Drucker Foundation for Non-Profit Management. 11 pages. Can be ordered on-line at www.pfdf.org or www.josseybass.com.
  
  Focus: Organizational culture.
  
  Recommended audience: Anyone interested in organizational culture and the ways in which it relates to the type of leadership needed.
  
  In this short essay, Schein looks at leadership as it relates to an organization’s particular stage of development: beginning, building, maintaining, or changing. He examines the ways in which an organizational culture is built and in which it may need to be gently changed so as to deal with new challenges. He cautions leaders about the human costs—such as job loss and a sense of betrayal—that change may create. Leadership is not, he concludes, a one-size-fits-all proposition for organizations.

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