Crisis & Renewal : Meeting The Challenge Of Organizational Change

"Crisis & Renewal" presents a radical view of how all successful organizations evolve and renew themselves and of what managers must do to lead the revival. Contrary to traditional organizational theory, which emphasizes rationality and control in the management of change, this book argues that there are times when managers must deliberately create crises by committing acts of 'ethical anarchy' in order to break the constraints of success and renew their organizations. Hurst develops a model of change the organizational ecocycle to explain how even successful organizations become systematically vulnerable to catastrophe. He brings the model to life with stories of crisis and renewal from both his own management and consulting experiences and a cross-section of enterprises from the hunter-gatherers of the Kalahari and the Quakers of the Industrial Revolution to contemporary organizations such as 3M and Nike. Born when people come together to capitalize on an opportunity, young organizations are usually dedicated to innovation and learning.As they grow and age, they become preoccupied with performance. Sooner or later they become constrained by their own success.