Organization Development & Change With Infotrac

Rating:
Summary: Excellent textbook for Organization Change and Dev't Class
Review: As an OD practitioner and faculty who teaches Org Change, I find Cummings and Worley's book superb. The case studies are short enough to use in class. Students find the writing style clear and understandable. And the book grounds its practical advice in theories and models that students can use for years after completing the class. The instructor's guide provides excellent insights into cases, but gives poorly written assessment items for use on tests. All textbooks have tradeoffs. On the academic side, this book lacks references to empirical research that students could follow up on. On the practical side, it lacks comparisons between interventions that practitioners choose from. It doesn't provide a personal wisdom that some readers would want. But it does provide engaging content that's clear enough for students recently out of college and deep enough for mid-career professionals who are reading the book for a class.

Rating:
Summary: I agree
Review: I agree with some of the other reviewers who recommended "real world" books by Beitler, Schein, Kotter, and other authors. Cummings and Worley's work is only helpful if you are an academic trying to understand the real world.

Rating:
Summary: I agree
Review: I agree with some of the other reviewers who recommended "real world" books by Beitler, Schein, Kotter, and other authors. Cummings and Worley's work is only helpful if you are an academic trying to understand the real world.

Rating:
Summary: The Worst Book on OD
Review: I am an enthuastic OD practitioner who loves the field of OD. I am amazed at how two academics could present OD as boring and lifeless.

Rating:
Summary: Great Substance No Style
Review: One would think that a book about change would be innovative in terms of style. This book is as exciting as the operating instructions that come with your vcr. However, the content is first class. This book will remain on my desk as a reference. Almost every chapter has vital information for any type of change agent. It tells you the key steps in managing change, overcoming resistance to change and designing change interventions. It walks you through the change process step by step beginning with entering an organization then to diagnosing a problem. Once you diagnose a problem the book clearly describes a myriad of interventions for organziational, group and individual problems. Then the book takes you through the steps of implementing and evaluating interventions.

Rating:
Summary: Academic Nonsense!
Review: This book is 700 pages of academic nonsense. If you are a practitioner, buy "Strategic Organizational Change" by Beitler.

Rating:
Summary: Too Academic!
Review: This book is too academic. Managers and consultants should purchase Beitler's "Strategic Organizational Change" for real-world advice.

Rating:
Summary: Too general, lots of filler, still better than average
Review: This textbook is dated, as all multi-editions (intentionally?) are. Most of the case studies are from the 1990s; there is little sense of history here. The case studies tend to be short and general in nature, as well. The material on OD presented in the book is good and informative, even if the prose style is rather dry. What the authors spend 676 pages(including glossary)to say could have been said as well in perhaps half the space. Compared to other OD texts that the writer has read, this one comes off quite well, the forgoing nonwithstanding. In terms of constructive criticism, this writer would like to see greater depth in the coverage of each topic, and a greater sense both of history and of the future. The book reads as if the authors expect the trends of the present to continue without change into the forseeable future. Specifically, globalization is seen as a long-term factor, when it may well give way to regional trade blocks, as the world becomes multipolar, and as ethnic and religous issues join national self-interest in setting the agendas of nations not on the winning side of globalism. (However, one cannot expect OD textbook authors to be geostrategic thinkers, either.) Connectivity with other disciplines would also help the text; for example, a digression examining "King Lear" or "Julius Caesar" from an OD perspective might inform and entertain the reader. While this book could be improved, it is worth reading on it's own merits, and compares well to other texts in the field of OD. -Lloyd A. Conway

Rating:
Summary: Too general, lots of filler, still better than average
Review: This textbook is dated, as all multi-editions (intentionally?) are. Most of the case studies are from the 1990s; there is little sense of history here. The case studies tend to be short and general in nature, as well. The material on OD presented in the book is good and informative, even if the prose style is rather dry. What the authors spend 676 pages(including glossary)to say could have been said as well in perhaps half the space. Compared to other OD texts that the writer has read, this one comes off quite well, the forgoing nonwithstanding. In terms of constructive criticism, this writer would like to see greater depth in the coverage of each topic, and a greater sense both of history and of the future. The book reads as if the authors expect the trends of the present to continue without change into the forseeable future. Specifically, globalization is seen as a long-term factor, when it may well give way to regional trade blocks, as the world becomes multipolar, and as ethnic and religous issues join national self-interest in setting the agendas of nations not on the winning side of globalism. (However, one cannot expect OD textbook authors to be geostrategic thinkers, either.) Connectivity with other disciplines would also help the text; for example, a digression examining "King Lear" or "Julius Caesar" from an OD perspective might inform and entertain the reader. While this book could be improved, it is worth reading on it's own merits, and compares well to other texts in the field of OD. -Lloyd A. Conway