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Leadership and the Art of Change: A Practical Guide to Organizational Transformation
Most books on leadership and organizational change focus on descriptive theory and research, simplistic and questionable gimmicks, or biographical sketches of successful leaders whose character and exploits students are encouraged to emulate. Leadership and the Art of Change avoids pedantry, gimmicks, and hero worship while addressing the complex issues involved in trying to lead an organization. It does not bury the reader in abstractions, nor does it offer quick fixes.
Leadership and the Art of Change is a unique book in that it focuses on a leader′s central and most daunting task―achieving organizational change that successfully addresses external and internal threats and opportunities. Author Lee R. Beach uses six prime responsibilities as the framework for discussing change external and internal environmental assessment to identify required changes, organizational culture as a constraint on change, vision for motivating change; plans as a map for change, implementation to produce change, and follow-through for institutionalizing achieved changes and making ongoing change a part of the culture.
Key Defines leadership as the art of producing changes in an organization′s environment, its culture, and its practices in pursuit of survival and prosperity Explains the importance of organizational culture as the key to facilitating or inhibiting change Examines methods for building a vision and leveraging culture in order to move the organization toward the vision with implementation strategies Offers self-summary exercises as well as a new episode of an ongoing vignette in each chapter that helps readers understand the issues under consideration Includes appendices that provide students with hands-on tools to do marketing research, survey an organization′s culture, and perform decision analyses Written in a conversational manner, Leadership and the Art of Change is an engaging textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate students studying management in a variety of programs including Business, Public Administration, Health Care Management, and Social Work. It will also be of interest to professional managers looking for a unique perspective on organizational change.
Leadership and the Art of Change is a unique book in that it focuses on a leader′s central and most daunting task―achieving organizational change that successfully addresses external and internal threats and opportunities. Author Lee R. Beach uses six prime responsibilities as the framework for discussing change external and internal environmental assessment to identify required changes, organizational culture as a constraint on change, vision for motivating change; plans as a map for change, implementation to produce change, and follow-through for institutionalizing achieved changes and making ongoing change a part of the culture.
Key Defines leadership as the art of producing changes in an organization′s environment, its culture, and its practices in pursuit of survival and prosperity Explains the importance of organizational culture as the key to facilitating or inhibiting change Examines methods for building a vision and leveraging culture in order to move the organization toward the vision with implementation strategies Offers self-summary exercises as well as a new episode of an ongoing vignette in each chapter that helps readers understand the issues under consideration Includes appendices that provide students with hands-on tools to do marketing research, survey an organization′s culture, and perform decision analyses Written in a conversational manner, Leadership and the Art of Change is an engaging textbook for advanced undergraduate and graduate students studying management in a variety of programs including Business, Public Administration, Health Care Management, and Social Work. It will also be of interest to professional managers looking for a unique perspective on organizational change.
200 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2005
About the author
Lee Roy Beach
24 books1 followerAcademic Biography
I am the McClelland Centennial Professor Emeritus of Management at the Eller College of Business, University of Arizona, where I also was a Professor of Public Administration and of Psychology. I received my Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Colorado, under Ken Hammond, and then served in the U.S. Navy at the Aviation Psychology Laboratory in Pensacola and the Office of Naval Research in Washington. This was followed by two years of post-doctoral work in decision research, under Ward Edwards, at the University of Michigan.
I began my academic career in the Cognitive and the Organizational Studies programs at the University of Washington, where I served as Chair of the Psychology Department, received the Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching, was named Professor of the Year for the State of Washington and Bronze Medalist for National Professor of the Year, received the Feldman Award for research and was named to the University Teaching Academy. I have been a Visiting Professor at Cambridge (U.K.) and Leiden (Netherlands) Universities and at the University of Chicago.After joining the business faculty at Arizona, I was named Professor of the Year, served for three years as Vice Dean, taught graduate and executive education courses, and was active in research and consulting.
Before I retired, I was a Fellow of both the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Society and a member of the Society for Organizational Behavior, the Society for Judgment and Decision Making and a regular contributor to the European Conferences on Decision Making. I was on the editorial boards of Organization Behavior and Human Decision Making, The Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, and The Journal of Forecasting and have published over 120 scholarly articles and 7 books on decision making and organizational behavior. Among the more recent of the latter are:
The Psychology of Decision Making: People in Organizations (2nd Ed.) (With Terry Connolly). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage (2005).
Leadership and the Art of Change. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage (2006).
The Human Element: Understanding and Managing Employee Behavior. Armonk, NY: Sharpe (2007).
Narrative Thinking and Decision Making: How the Stories We Tell Ourselves Shape Our Decisions, and Vice Versa.
I am the McClelland Centennial Professor Emeritus of Management at the Eller College of Business, University of Arizona, where I also was a Professor of Public Administration and of Psychology. I received my Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of Colorado, under Ken Hammond, and then served in the U.S. Navy at the Aviation Psychology Laboratory in Pensacola and the Office of Naval Research in Washington. This was followed by two years of post-doctoral work in decision research, under Ward Edwards, at the University of Michigan.
I began my academic career in the Cognitive and the Organizational Studies programs at the University of Washington, where I served as Chair of the Psychology Department, received the Alumni Award for Distinguished Teaching, was named Professor of the Year for the State of Washington and Bronze Medalist for National Professor of the Year, received the Feldman Award for research and was named to the University Teaching Academy. I have been a Visiting Professor at Cambridge (U.K.) and Leiden (Netherlands) Universities and at the University of Chicago.After joining the business faculty at Arizona, I was named Professor of the Year, served for three years as Vice Dean, taught graduate and executive education courses, and was active in research and consulting.
Before I retired, I was a Fellow of both the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Society and a member of the Society for Organizational Behavior, the Society for Judgment and Decision Making and a regular contributor to the European Conferences on Decision Making. I was on the editorial boards of Organization Behavior and Human Decision Making, The Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, and The Journal of Forecasting and have published over 120 scholarly articles and 7 books on decision making and organizational behavior. Among the more recent of the latter are:
The Psychology of Decision Making: People in Organizations (2nd Ed.) (With Terry Connolly). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage (2005).
Leadership and the Art of Change. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage (2006).
The Human Element: Understanding and Managing Employee Behavior. Armonk, NY: Sharpe (2007).
Narrative Thinking and Decision Making: How the Stories We Tell Ourselves Shape Our Decisions, and Vice Versa.
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