Discussion: View Thread

Hello All,

I would like to hear about what everyone considers the all-time
"classic" management books. I'm interested in what different people
think as I want to develop a list of books which are consistently rated
a classic. If you want to send me a list of your all time 5 favorite -
feel free to do that too.

I'm working on a project (and maybe an article) related to this, and
figured the MG-ED-DV list is probably one of the best places to get
feedback from.

Please reply directly to me and I will post the results of everyone's
feedback to the list.

Thanks,


Russ Williams
The Training Place

Anything by Bennis. Productive Workplaces by Weisbord. Working the Shadow
Side by Gerald Egan (out of print I believe but a wonderful read). Don
Noer's two books - Healing the Wounds and Breaking Free.

Nancy Y. Probst

One of my favorites is "Out of the Crisis" W. E. Deming, MIT Press,
1986. He elaborates and expands his theories in "The New Economics",
but I've only skimmed it and can't make an informed judgement.
I also like Edgar Schein's works on organizational culture and behavior
have provided me with much food for thought.
Drucker's "The Effective Exeuctive" comes to mind.
I'm currently reading "The Management and Control of Quality" by J.
Evans and W. Lindsay, 3rd ed. West Publsihing, 1996 Take small bites.
:-)

------------------------------------------------
Opinions or statements expressed herein, rational or otherwise, do not
necessarily reflect those of my employer.

Harold J. Crossman
OSRAM SYLVANIA INC.
Lighting Research Center
71 Cherry Hill Dr.
Beverly, MA 01915
Phone: (508) 750-1717
E-mail: crossman@osi.sylvania.com

Our web sites: www.sylvania.com
www.siemens.com
--

"Crossman, Harold" <crossman@osi.SYLVANIA.com>


>

I haven't seen any mention of these two:

The Human Side of Enterprise, by Douglas MacGregor

Future Edge, by Joel Arthur Barker

Jay Spitulnik
AED, Inc.
600 Unicorn Park Drive
Woburn, MA 01801
781-932-9090 (phone) 781-932-9077 (fax)
jspitulnik@aedinc.com

Yes, I think Simon and Thompson continue to be the most influential or
among the most influential. Another one is more recent and that is
Williamson's "Markets & Hierarchies" (Free Press), 1975). Porter's
Competjtive strategy is also a classic, I think. These two books are
recent, so call them modern classics? I think their durability is
already established. And we can also think of classic articles - must
reads- for our research students? From my perspective, Coase's "Nature
of the firm" and the coase theorem paper (Jof law and econ, 1960),
qualify in this respect. Of course, there are a number of other such
papers in sociology too- eg Blau's ASR paper on structure.
N. Rao Kowtha
Department of Organisational Behavior
Faculty of Business Administration
National University of Singapore
10 Kent Ridge Crescent
Singapore 119260, Singapore
Tel: (65) 8743049
Fax: (65) 775 5571

OK, I have to admit that I may be a bit young to be referring to "Classic"
mgt books, but at 36, I've read a few...

My focus is on modern classics, the type of books that will redefine
management into the 21st century. As an MS/MIS, I also have a slant towards
information management.

Recent books have caught my attention, as well as other management
consultants. The most interesting are:

Information Management for The Intelligent Organization, by Choo Chun, pub.
ASIS, www.asis.org

The Living Company, Arie De Gues

Leadership and The New Science, Margaret Wheatley

The Death of Competition, Moore

By the way,

I am always looking for other books, so this thread has been quite helpful
- Thank You.

Michael Weisman.
mweisman@packet.net
tampa, florida
-------------------------------------------------------------
CHAOS IS MERELY A FUNCTION OF
THE GRANULARITY OF THE SAMPLE

Dear Mgt Ed-ers,

Yes, Taylor, Follett, Bernard (essential), Gulick and Urwick, Mayo (not
sure of this) and Drucker.
Essential to add Henri Fayol, Industrial and General Administration, IMI,
Geneva, 1925

I would add Herbert Simon, Administrative Behaviour, Macmillan NY 1957
James Yhompsn, Organizations in Action, McGraw-Hill, NY 1967 as books
that have had a very significant effect on management, via their
influence on theories/concepts.

Also there are a number of compilations (excerpts) of 'classic' writings
in management theory.

My $0.2 worth

Dave M

--
__________________________
David E. Morgan,
School of Industrial Relations and Organisational Behaviour,
University of New South Wales,
Sydney, 2052, AUSTRALIA.
Ph. +61 2 9385 2181 (w) +61 2 9489 1448 (h)
Fax +61 2 9662 8531 Email d.morgan@unsw.edu.au

Harold,

It was a pleasant surprise to find another Crossman in his business - I seldom
run into another person with that name. I recently retired from NASA where I
was responsible for manager and ececutive development, project management and
organization development at different times over the pas 15 years. I am
interested in discovering what others are doing in those areas as I have
reestablished a private practice that I had before I began work at NASA. And,
my cousin stimulaed my interest in the geneology of the Crossman family - my
great grandfather had a small farm in Schutesbury, MA. Our branch of the
family originated in this country when John Crossman, in 1639 came from
Cornwall, England and was 1 of 46 first purchasers of Taunton, MA. If you are
part of that same line and have additional information I would appreciate
receiving it - I would also be willing to send you the other information I
have if you are interested.

Dale Crossman, Ed.D.

Why was this personal e-mail sent here? Please be sure to target personal
replies to individuals. Thank you!
----------
> From: Dalecros <Dalecros@AOL.COM>
> To: MG-ED-DV@MAELSTROM.STJOHNS.EDU
> Subject: Re: Classic Management Books
> Date: Sun, 7 Dec 1997 09:50:38 EST
>
>Harold,
>
>It was a pleasant surprise to find another Crossman in his business - I
seldom
>run into another person with that name. I recently retired from NASA where
I
>was responsible for manager and ececutive development, project management
and
>organization development at different times over the pas 15 years. I am
>interested in discovering what others are doing in those areas as I have
>reestablished a private practice that I had before I began work at NASA.
And,
>my cousin stimulaed my interest in the geneology of the Crossman family -
my
>great grandfather had a small farm in Schutesbury, MA. Our branch of the
>family originated in this country when John Crossman, in 1639 came from
>Cornwall, England and was 1 of 46 first purchasers of Taunton, MA. If you
are
>part of that same line and have additional information I would appreciate
>receiving it - I would also be willing to send you the other information I
>have if you are interested.
>
>Dale Crossman, Ed.D.
>

Nora Carrol wrote:
>
> Why was this personal e-mail sent here? Please be sure to target personal
> replies to individuals. Thank you!
> ----------

I think it bears repeating that the listserv mechanism of this list is
somehwat different than many others. If the respondent clicks on the
'Re:Mail' which usually generates a pop-up window ONLY to the primary
sender of the msg, in this case, it will send that msg out to ALL list
members.

So respondents have to be careful and cut and paste the address of the
intended recipient of their individual reply. (The same is true of the
learning org list.) I made the same mistake early on in participation in
this list. Charlie W. noted my error and I've cut and pasted since. This
will, however, continue to happen with new members who do not realize
that the list generates that oddity in responses.

All the best,
--
T.J. Elliott
Cavanaugh Leahy
http://idt.net/~tjell
914 366-7499