Frank--
After I heard the same NPR interview that you did, I picked up a copy of
*The Witch Doctors*. The authors are senior editors for the
British journal *The Economist*. The book is a wonderful, refreshing
look at the field of OD from two intelligent observers who have been in
the position of surveying and following the business literature for
decades. The title comes, BTW, from their observatin that sometimes what
we do works and sometimes not and we are never completely sure why!--our
client-companies know this but they engage our services on faith hoping
for "the magic bullet" that will relieve them of the anxiety of
functioning in an uncertain, turbulent world.
Their principal charge is that the field of management theory--presided
over by a triumverate of academia, consultancies, and the business
press--has so much money at stake that new "cures" are offered at least
annually, with the result that businesses that follow "the experts'
advice" are jerked on- and off-course constantly. They also charge that
the field is insufficiently self-critical so that "the wheat is not
separated from the chaff."
I find myself quoting their observations and conclusions regularly in
classes and discussions with people in the field. It is an easy read and I
highly recommend it.
Ruth
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Ruth H. Axelrod, Doctoral Candidate | How come when I want a
Organizational Behavior and Development | set of hands I get a
The George Washington University | human being as well?
(H) 301-593-4938 |
11372 Baroque Road, Silver Spring, MD 20901 | Attributed to Henry Ford
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On Fri, 14 Feb 1997, FRANK BELL wrote:
> Warning: Moderately long post about an interview I found
> interesting. I plan to get this book, and wondered if any of you had
> run into it yet.
>
> I heard an interview night before last on NPR with Wooldrich and
> Michelthwaite (and I'm not sure I've spelled their names corectly!),
> who have written a book called _The_Witchdoctors:__Making_Sense_of_
> Management_Gurus_ (again, because I caught this on the radio, I'm not
> 100% sure of the last two or three words of the subtitle. The
> authors are staffers at London's Economist.
>
> According to the interview, the book explores the proliferation of
> writings about management and why the fads of half-baked, ineffective
> solutions seem to come and go so quickly, and why new theories and
> quick fixes are accepted so readily and unquestioningly by the
> management community, without demands for research or empirical
> verification that would likely be made of, say, a new product
> proposal.
>
> They propose that this is a result of anxiety. They suggest that a
> "good percentage" of the fortune 500 firms of 1970 no longer exist,
> either having gone under or been absorbed by other companies, and
> that businesspersons are looking for some way out of the uncertainty.
> I noted however, that they did not cite a figure in the conversation
> (and boy, this would be an easy figure to get!).
>
> They also suggest that, once a fad starts, it feeds itself, as
> being able to converse about it at meetings, lunches, and the like
> becomes a mark of showing that one is, indeed, up to date with the
> latest.
>
> How can someone avoid being sucked into a fad: avoid books and
> strategies that promise too much--they won't deliver. Start with a
> clear idea of the needs of one's own company, and look for strategies
> that address the need, rather than doing XYZ (substitute the
> three-letter acronym of your choice) because some exec. from Enormous
> Industries Inc. across the street said that it was the latest thing
> and would cure low sales and decrease the health care payout.
>
> BTW, I found the thread on shyness in the classroom most interesting.
> Clearly touched a nerve and provoked some meaty comments.
>
>
> Frank Bell Internet:
> Project Leader
frank.bell@nonamebbs.com
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frank.bell@royal.com
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>
>
>
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