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The Economics of Higher Purpose: Eight Counterintuitive Steps for Creating a Purpose-Driven Organization
Two distinguished scholars offer eight steps to help organizations discover and embrace an authentic higher purpose--something that will dramatically improve every aspect of any enterprise, including the bottom line.
What does a lofty notion like purpose have to do with business basics like the bottom line? Robert E. Quinn and Anjan J. Thakor say pretty much everything. Leaders and managers are taught that employees are self-interested and work resistant, so they create systems of control to combat these expectations. Workers resent these systems, and performance suffers. To address the performance issues, managers double down on the coercion, creating a vicious cycle and a self-fulfilling prophecy.
But there is a better way. Quinn and Thakor show that when an authentic higher purpose permeates business strategy and decision-making, the cycle is broken. Employers and employees see themselves as working together toward an inspiring goal, not just trying to hit quarterly targets. They fully engage, become proactive contributors, and, ironically, easily exceed those quarterly targets.
Based on their widely acclaimed Harvard Business Review article, Quinn and Thakor offer eight sometimes surprising steps for shifting from a transaction-oriented mind-set focused on constraints to a purpose-oriented mind-set focused on possibility. This iconoclastic book will help any organization discover its authentic purpose and weave it into the fabric of everything it does, leading to unprecedented levels of personal satisfaction, service and product innovation, and economic growth.
What does a lofty notion like purpose have to do with business basics like the bottom line? Robert E. Quinn and Anjan J. Thakor say pretty much everything. Leaders and managers are taught that employees are self-interested and work resistant, so they create systems of control to combat these expectations. Workers resent these systems, and performance suffers. To address the performance issues, managers double down on the coercion, creating a vicious cycle and a self-fulfilling prophecy.
But there is a better way. Quinn and Thakor show that when an authentic higher purpose permeates business strategy and decision-making, the cycle is broken. Employers and employees see themselves as working together toward an inspiring goal, not just trying to hit quarterly targets. They fully engage, become proactive contributors, and, ironically, easily exceed those quarterly targets.
Based on their widely acclaimed Harvard Business Review article, Quinn and Thakor offer eight sometimes surprising steps for shifting from a transaction-oriented mind-set focused on constraints to a purpose-oriented mind-set focused on possibility. This iconoclastic book will help any organization discover its authentic purpose and weave it into the fabric of everything it does, leading to unprecedented levels of personal satisfaction, service and product innovation, and economic growth.
240 pages, Hardcover
Published August 20, 2019
22 people are currently reading
92 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
April 10, 2021
We were assigned this book in preparation for orientation to my PhD program, and then had the opportunity to participate in a symposium with the book's authors for an afternoon. I don't necessarily have a problem with the book or the ideas, but I wanted more concrete evidence that they actually work. As a practitioner it is so important to demonstrate value. Perhaps I am still in a "traditional mindset," but I couldn't help want more evidence of shareholder value, in dollars and cents.
June 21, 2021
I had the privilege of interviewing the second author, Anjan Thakor, for my podcast, so look for Episode 129 at thatssosecondmillennium.net on July 12 for what would be my review.
The path of "inspirational business book" is well-trodden and yet this work really lit me up.
The path of "inspirational business book" is well-trodden and yet this work really lit me up.
May 4, 2020
we were all reading it as a team at work. we got to quit reading it because of covid. I hope we do not pick it back up again.
May 15, 2020
Examples of companies and humans living within a higher, cultivated version of themselves, affecting the world in elevated ways, effecting inducement in those who observe.
June 5, 2021
4.5. Intriguing concept. Solidly supported approach both anecdotally and scientifically. Good reference for those seeking validation on purpose driven lives.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews