The Hindu Business Line : Sixteen types of organisational evolution

What are organisations? "Purposive social collections of controlled resources, building exchange relations and interacting with other entities, and developing strategies for reaching objectives." Thus defines Rodolphe Durand in Organisational Evolution and Strategic Management, from Sage (www.sagepublications.com).

He defines organisational evolution as a series of identifiable events causally linked together. Insightful in the book is `a primary taxonomy' with sixteen types of evolution. These are: Change, metamorphosis, sequence, improvement, mutation, progress, development, adjustment, transformation, adaptation, deviation, functionality, recombination, fit, contingency, and convergence.

"An alteration without a predefined end describes a `mutation'," explains the author, and cites, as example, how in the 1990s British Airways had to undergo mutation in response to the opposition of the employees to `the drastic cost reduction plan.'

One learns that `fit' connects the acting organisations to their environment; that when there is `functionality' the organisation fulfils its predetermined role and deploys its effectiveness in relation to its environment; and that `convergence' indicates smooth junction of entities' characteristics and behaviour via continual interactions.

Worth a serious study.

Build engagement

Traditional command-and-control system can't generate results in today's world, says Alexander Hiam in Motivational Management, from Magna Publishing (www.magnamags.com).

One of the first secrets of performance in the book is that "a positive, can-do emotional climate as a backdrop to specific goals and tasks." Remember that, as a manager, "you cannot directly influence or control how your people feel about their work."

Which means, you need to work on the indirect ways. For instance, "How you feel about work affects how they feel, so managing your own work-related attitudes is a good way to manage theirs. Also, your behaviour toward employees can have a big influence on their attitudes."

It is important to get the work done; but more important is `how motivated the employees feel about the work,' states Hiam. Motivational communication is what stimulates employees' engagement and gets them involved — both emotionally and intellectually — in whatever you are thinking about.

To do this, you needn't "stand up on a soap box and wave your arms in the air." Simple communications techniques that build engagement are all you need to use, advises the author. "Something as simple as asking employees to think about a problem and to suggest solutions can be sufficient to get them engaged and to build a high level of motivation."

Effective addition to your bookshelf!

Tailpiece

"I think we will get a sleek laptop instead of a big desktop!"

"I also think they'd give us a plasma TV instead of the usual type!"

http://BookPeek.blogspot.com

D. Murali